Business groups want Government to 'get out of the way' of nuclear power

A prominent business group is urging the Federal Government to "get out of the way" of nuclear power becoming a reality in Australia.

The call comes after the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister reignited the debate about nuclear power in Australia.

The peak business group in South Australia, Business SA, is pushing for a debate to be held on the merits of building a nuclear power reactor in the state.

The organisation's chief executive, Nigel McBride, has welcomed the comments from senior figures within the Federal Government.

"I do welcome what is, to me, a very important sign from the Prime Minister that this Government is not closed to what could be a significant game-changer in our fight for affordable energy," he said.

At the moment legislation bans nuclear power from becoming a reality.

Mr McBride's view of the legislative ban is blunt.

"What we need from Government is we need governments to get out of the way," he said.

Business SA is pushing for a debate about building a $3 billion micro reactor known as a Prism power plant designed by General Electric and Hitachi.

The plant converts used nuclear fuel rods and surplus plutonium into energy.

Mr McBride argued the proposal would pay its own way after five years.

He said the technology was safe and innovative and would also see nuclear nations pay Australia to take their spent fuel rods.

Tony Abbott welcomes nuclear energy ideas

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said earlier this week he would be "fine" with someone putting forward a nuclear energy proposal.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has told Fairfax Media nuclear energy was an "obvious" way to reduce carbon emissions.

But Mr Abbott warned the Government was not interested in providing financial incentives to private operators to build nuclear power facilities in Australia.

Mr McBride has reassured the Prime Minister there would not be a push for government assistance.

"We're not asking for subsidies," he said.

"We're asking for the Government to allow this to proceed."

Engineers call for 'simple legislation change'

The body that represents the nation's engineers, Engineers Australia, has joined the call for Government to remove the legislative barriers to nuclear power.

Tony Irwin from Engineers Australia said the Prime Minister's comments showed nuclear power was "seriously being considered".

He also called for "simple legislation change".

Mr Irwin said there were already regulators in place who could monitor the industry.

"We need a process to see how we're going to change the legislation," he said.

Mr Irwin is also the technical director of a company called SMR Nuclear Technology.

He is recommending the construction of small light water reactors that use uranium processed overseas.

"The sort of size is about the size of a large petrol filling station," he said.

"It's very compact – needs very little land.

"They can be air-cooled so you don't have to put them on the sea and the reactor is underground so it is again safe from external hazards or terrorists."

He said these small modular reactors would be ideal for large mining operations in remote locations and could power up to 500 homes.

Mr Irwin argued a light-water reactor was more likely to win approval because there was similar regulatory approval for these operations in countries such as Finland.

"These would fit easily onto the Australian grid system," he said.

He said it might be difficult to win support for the micro reactor because it was new technology and there was not enough regulatory approval in other nations for the Prism plant.

The Opposition's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, earlier this week dismissed nuclear power as an alternative.

"I don't think it's a viable option for Australia," Ms Plibersek said.

"We know that it's expensive.

"It takes a long time to get nuclear energy underway and in fact countries that have been relying on nuclear energy like Japan and Germany are actually retreating from the use of it."

Senior Labor frontbencher Jenny Macklin said it was unnecessary for more nuclear energy in Australia.

She also wanted to know where the power stations would be located.