Australian scientists oppose nuke plants

CANBERRA, Australia, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- A group of Australian scientists have refuted a government report on entering the nuclear energy sphere, saying it would lead to weapons proliferation.

The Energy-Science Coalition said the government report's plan for 25 nuclear plants by 2050 would lead to enough plutonium for up to 45,000 nuclear weapons, The West Australian reports.

The group was responding to a federal report led by nuclear physicist Ziggy Switkowski which advocated nuclear energy as a way to make up to a third of the country's energy demand, and put off dealing with the nuclear waste issue until 2050.

Australia has no nuclear reactors, though it is a major supplier of uranium, the key ingredient processed and used as fuel.

But the spent fuel from a reactor can be further processed into plutonium, which is used in nuclear weapons.

The Energy-Science Coalition report estimated up to 45,000 tons of nuclear waste to be created under the Switkowski report's plan.

The coalition's report was written by Jim Green of Friends of the Earth; Jim Falk, director of the Australian Center for Science, Innovation and Society at Melbourne University; Richard Broinowski, professor at the University of New South Wales and Monash University; and members of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War.