The prospect of seven nuclear reactors being dotted around Australia has sparked hope and concern within the communities set to host the plants. A federal inquiry has been touring the country listening to residents, farmers and business owners. A key theme has been a thirst for more information, but they have been told this will be released over the next few years.
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00:00Since the coalition floated the prospect of power stations going nuclear, politicians
00:08have been fixated on the financial cost.
00:11For the regional communities picked to host these plants, their focus has been on a different
00:16type of cost.
00:17Too costly, too slow, too risky, we say no.
00:21We have questions about what this means for our community.
00:24Will there be one here, when, if it is?
00:28And those concerns, land, safety concerns, environmental concerns.
00:34In June, the opposition identified seven coal-fired power stations that are earmarked to close
00:39or have already shut down.
00:41Peter Dutton has promised to build nuclear reactors at each site, if elected.
00:47Apart from the coalition's release of its costings this month, there have been few other
00:51details.
00:52Honestly, they're taking the piss out of Australians right now.
00:55They're keeping them in the dark.
00:56They're giving them no information.
00:58Federal Labor established a parliamentary inquiry, with hearings near each site.
01:03More than 800 submissions have been lodged, and both sides of the debate aired.
01:08Nuclear, the benefits of it are that it can be set up at existing infrastructure, rather
01:13than outsourcing our power to foreign companies that come and build on land like this, that's
01:18just so fertile and so valuable for our future and the future of our children.
01:23What are we doing to our planet by creating this huge level of toxic pollution for many
01:32thousands of generations?
01:35We have no right to do that.
01:37The hearings were also a chance to vent frustration.
01:41The proposal was launched onto the community without any of this level of dialogue that's
01:48required.
01:49When witnesses asked for more details, they were told to wait.
01:52Before you condemn something, make sure that you're across the facts.
01:55At this stage, we don't have them all available.
01:58We're in opposition.
01:59The regional communities want to know how the nuclear waste will be transported and
02:03stored and whether the technology and infrastructure are safe.
02:07They're being told that questions will be answered during a two and a half year consultation
02:11process.
02:12And I don't have a lot of confidence in promises, we'll find some water, we'll find a way
02:19to deal with waste.
02:20If this thing crashes here, what's the impact of that?
02:25We don't know that.
02:26One of the Coalition's key promises is that the coal industry's workforce will be able
02:31to transfer to nuclear.
02:33People are turning around and saying, we need nuclear, we need solar, we need wind, we need
02:36hydrogen, we need jobs.
02:37That is the big filler.
02:39But Peter Dutton wants the first reactors to be operating by 2035, after some coal-fired
02:45stations shut.
02:47This gap has created uncertainty.
02:50What am I going to?
02:51And looking at the nuclear timeline, I'm just not sure how that matches up and how that's
02:55going to help Collie.
02:56I think we need to be looking at new industry, manufacturing.
03:02It's also stirred resentment.
03:04People have become more disenfranchised and they're more susceptible to suggestions that
03:11jobs in mines and jobs in coal-fired power stations can be saved because they don't see
03:16anything being replaced.
03:18Witnesses hope any future consultation doesn't replicate the turmoil created during the rollout
03:23of solar and wind projects.
03:26The thing that really gets to me though is the division of our community.
03:32There's so much fear, anger, false facts.
03:35The inquiry has until next April to present its report to Parliament, a few weeks before
03:40a federal election is due to be held.
03:43The views of regional Australia may be mixed, but they agree on one thing.
03:47I hope at the end of it all it's taken back to Canberra though and really just agree with
03:53what's coming out of the bush.