Nuclear Power Enquiry a Joke

It doesn't take much imagination to guess the outcome of the Nuclear Power enquiry announced by the Prime Minister this afternoon.

The former Telstra chief Ziggy Switkowski will head the enquiry into the future of nuclear energy and uranium mining.

Dr Switkowski will be backed by a panel of five experts, and Australia's Chief Scientist Jim Peacock will assist with the review.

Yes, the guy who's heading the enquiry is a member of an organisation that has a vested interest in the nuclear industry.

Dr Switkowski is a nuclear physicist, and also sits on the board of ANSTO, the nuclear agency which released a report this week saying nuclear power is a cost effective option.

Not everyone thinks ANSTO's report was valid, though. From last night's 7.30 Report ...

DR MARK DIESENDORF, INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, UNSW: It's a complete rubbish and if one of my students produced something like that, they would fail.

MATT PEACOCK: According to environmental scientist Mark Diesendorf of the University of NSW, the ANSTO study assumes Government subsidies. He believes that nuclear will cost almost three times as much as coal.

DR MARK DIESENDORF: The study does not reveal the most fundamental, basic parameters of the problem; it doesn't tell us the basic capital cost of the nuclear power station; and it doesn't tell us the interest rates used on the capital, in order to calculate the cost of electricity. All it does is present us with a bottom line that suggests that given some subsidies from the Federal Government, nuclear power might become competitive.

But why pick one tainted member when you can pick two?

Another member of the Prime Minister's Task Force, Professor George Dracoulis, is also a nuclear physicist. He works at the Australian National University in Canberra.

The setting up of this enquiry could have been taken from an episode of "Yes Minister." Devotees of the show would remember Sir Humphrey lecturing Jim Hacker that the key to obtain a wanted outcome was to appoint the correct personnel.

The third member of the enquiry panel is Professor Warwick McKibben from the Reserve Bank Board. As RBB members are government appointees, we can safely guess his views on the subject will be 'sound.'

More members of the enquiry are to be announced tomorrow. Don't be surprised if they have connections with the mining industry.