STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator CADELL (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (13:56): It was interesting to hear that previous comment on what's happening in the world and the need to clean up and get rid of greenhouse gases when the person speaking is one of those so opposed to nuclear in this country—so opposed to an abundant source of energy where we can mine it, build it, grow it, operate it and actually get it out there.
When we talk about the new gas and the new coalmines that they're saying the government is interested in, or the people are, you have to realise that every new one is cleaner than the one you're taking offline. I look at the Bayswater No. 2 site that stands up in the Hunter Valley. It could be easily turned into a new HELE plant as quickly as we wanted to, to help with the transition of these things.
We're out there talking about AI and data centres, all of these things, but we're not talking about the way to fuel them with the strong baseload power that is needed. During this break, on 4 June, the Antares Mark-0 microreactor actually went critical for the first time, prior to the deadline of 4 August that was out there in the world. A microreactor is anything under one megawatt, and the Antares R1 reactor is up to 100 kilowatts.
It was housed, in its experimental stage, in a building just 12 metres by 20 metres. That's how big the building was, and that was everything—shielding, heat, transmission and all of these things in that size. What you're talking about is a future where containerisation of power up to one megawatt—so 100 kilowatts to one megawatt—is real.
It has happened. We've seen this go around the world, and Australia is sitting this out. Imagine being able to airlift a container to flood areas to get power.
Imagine its use for emergencies. Imagine its use for defence. Imagine the use of this technology that we are sitting out because we want to mine it, we want to sell it and we want to do treaties with countries to give it to them.
It's good that they have it but we can't use it ourselves! If we want a stronger base load—I want to follow Dr David Gillespie, who was here as a Nat and led it in the country, and the women who are out there, like Jaz Diab, Helen Cook and Patricia Gadd, who are leading this around the world. But we can't do it in Australia, because of a rule.
It is stupid and it must be overturned.