MEDIA REPORT OFFICIAL ADVICE ON VIABILITY OF NUCLEAR ENERGY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WELLINGTON 000480 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/PD-AGRIMES, EAP/P-K BAILES, EAP/ANP-DRICCI, INR/R/MR E.O. 12985: N/A TAGS: OIIP KPAO KMDR OPRC MNUC PREL NZ SUBJECT: MEDIA REPORT OFFICIAL ADVICE ON VIABILITY OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IN NZ REF: A) 05 WELLINGTON 650, B) WELLINGTON 260 ¶1. SUMMARY: On June 15, 2006, Radio New Zealand aired a report on the viability of nuclear energy in New Zealand after using the Official Information Act to obtain government papers prepared for the Minister of Energy. Two sets of official advice on possible future use of nuclear energy in New Zealand dismiss it as too expensive, too difficult to set up, and posing significant risks. However, the government papers say this could change within the next twenty years as the technology improves. Radio New Zealand reporter Caitlin Cherry canvassed the views of many of the major players: New Zealand's Electricity Commissioner, Ministry of Economic Development, Green Party co-leader, an Australian and New Zealand energy analyst, and Acting Energy Minister Trevor Mallard. Quotes from the radio report are detailed below with the main protagonist in each paragraph underlined. END SUMMARY. ¶2. Radio New Zealand outlines the Electricity Commissioner's view that nuclear energy is not presently a viable option for New Zealand. The network reports that Auckland's recent five-hour power cut prompted calls for the country to invest in nuclear power to meet future energy demands but that the Chair of the Electricity Commission, Roy Hemmingway, says that that argument has no merit. "It's very tempting whenever something happens like this, like happened in Auckland on Monday, that people with an agenda for something will push that agenda as the solution. The truth is that nuclear power would make the electricity system in New Zealand less reliable rather than more, so it's not a solution to anything in the New Zealand power system at this stage." Reporter Caitlin Cherry reports this quote is consistent with advice Hemmingway has provided to the Government. She says, "In his submission to the Energy Minister in March of this year, Roy Hemmingway argued that setting up a typical 1200 megawatt nuclear power plant would create massive problems for the energy system here. That's because if the plant ever trips off-line and there's a problem, full back-up power needs to be ready to fill that gap. Mr. Hemmingway says that would require an unreasonably large amount of generation just sitting there as a back-up." ¶3. RNZ reports that the Electricity Commissioner, Roy Hemmingway, says that the situation could change. "Now on the horizon, maybe 20 years out, there is potentially some technology change in nuclear power that will make it economical at much smaller sizes. When those plans have been demonstrated to be available, I think that New Zealand might take a look at them, but at this stage nuclear power is not the right choice for New Zealand," says Hemmingway. ¶4. The news report goes on to underline that another Government agency has provided similar advice. RNZ states that the same argument is made in the Economic Development Paper, which also points out that this country would need an entire nuclear infrastructure and trained nuclear physicists and engineers, significantly adding to the already huge cost. ¶5. The network also interviewed Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons, who agrees that nuclear power isn't feasible for New Zealand, but is reported to accept that the issue will need to be looked at again when the technology improves. "If, in the next generation there is a new technology that is safer, cheaper and doesn't have all the problems associated with this one, then of course we should look at it again -- but we can't wait for technology to save us in that way; we have to do something now and the obvious things to do now are much greater energy efficiency, use of technologies that are already here and cost-effective like wind and solar and bio-fuels. In a generation's time we probably won't even need to think nuclear." ¶6. The network also sought the views of two energy industry analysts -- one Australian and one New Zealander. Reporter Caitlin Cherry set up the quote from the Australian scientist by noting that "across the Tasman Prime Minister John Howard has set up a task-force to look at whether Australia should adopt nuclear energy. While most of New Zealand's power comes from hydro-schemes, 86% of Australia's energy comes from coal, a major contributor to green-house gases." The editor of science magazine "Cosmos," Wilson da Silva, believes that Australia will have no option but to go nuclear. "I think that it is inevitable, particularly with global warming now taking away water, we don't have hydro as an option. Australia has always been the second driest continent after Antarctica, so we WELLINGTON 00000480 002 OF 002 don't have the option of using hydro, which is the one that generates clean power without any greenhouse gases. So if we don't want to down to the coal and gas and oil, so we basically have to think about nuclear and I think it will happen here [in Australia]," says da Silva. Wilson da Silvia adds that there is some significant work under way around the world in creating safer, smaller, and more efficient nuclear power plants. ¶7. The second power industry consultant RNZ interviewed was New Zealander Bryan Leyland, who has also been looking at some of the new technology. He says there is no point waiting around to see what happens. "If we started now, if we started doing our homework, by the time we are in a position to order one, which would be several years, these newer plants will be available anyway and it is still going to be several years till it is running. So the time that they are talking about in the future is the time that I think we would arrive at if we started doing our investigations now." ¶8. Radio New Zealand considers that the Government is unlikely to undertake such investigation and says that the Government has reiterated that nuclear power is not an option for New Zealand. Acting Energy Minister Trevor Mallard says: "Roy Hemmingway, who is the Electricity Commissioner, essentially had it right. Roy is a supporter of nuclear power in the right context. What he says is that our energy system is so small that technically having a nuclear power station, one of 1000 or 1200 megawatts -- which would be a quarter of the supply of NZ -- having to have standby generation ready to go would just be enormously inefficient... I don't know of any suggestion which makes a power plant of below say 600 megawatts nuclear power plant something which is viable and if that's the case you'd have to have another power plant one and half times the size of the biggest one in New Zealand sitting ready to go if this thing went down so there is an absolute duplication which makes it uneconomic here." ¶9. In a social conversation one media contact from a rival radio network has suggested that beyond the logistics the Labor Government may also have a political motivation as she believes that "until now being anti-nuclear has been the one issue that has consistently united the right and left of the Labor caucus." MCCORMICK