MP suggests nuclear fix for power woes

By AUDREY YOUNG

New Zealand must consider nuclear energy as a power source, says Act MP Ken Shirley, as the country faces another winter of uncertainty.

"All we've got to see us through the next 20 years is coal," he said.

"There's very limited hydro potential. We should not dismiss the nuclear power option."

There was no strong environmental reason against it, and the technology was getting better all the time.

Apart from the Chernobyl disaster, which he put down to gross mismanagement, there had been more accidents in hydro and coal-fired power stations than nuclear stations.

Mr Shirley "strongly" supported keeping the ban on nuclear weapons, but had drafted a private member's bill reversing the part of the act banning nuclear-propelled ships.

"Nuclear propulsion and moving from carbon to hydrogen in energy is the way of the future."

To dismiss it on emotional grounds was just bizarre, he said.

Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said there was no need to base opposition to nuclear power on emotion.

"Logic will do quite well."

Nobody had solved the problem of what to do with nuclear waste.

Technology infrastructure demands would be enormously expensive for one or two nuclear power stations, she said.

They could have accidents. The United States had come close to experiencing two bad ones.

Power production of nuclear stations did not closely follow demand, said Ms Fitzsimons.

New Zealand would be better off building more smaller stations rather than fewer bigger ones "so that you can stage them according to demand".

National's energy spokesman, Gerry Brownlee, said the party saw no need to develop nuclear power.

"What we are alarmed at is the lack of new generation in the past four years."

Between 1996 and 1999 1275MW of new generation was developed, he said. Between 1999 and 2002 it was only 117MW.