CANBERRA - Australian Treasurer Peter Costello said on Tuesday he would support the development of nuclear energy in Australia if it proved to be economically viable.
Australia holds about 40 percent of the world's uranium resources and in 2004 exported 7,765 tonnes of uranium worth more than A$410 million ($311 million).
"If domestic (uranium) production stacks up on economic grounds of course I would support it. The only point I would make is that we have large deposits of coal. We can produce electricity from coal extremely competitively," Costello said.
"I'm not sure about the economics of producing from uranium, but if it were commercial of course I would support it," he told reporters in Canberra.
Australia's electricity market currently consists 57.7 percent black coal-fired power, 26.8 percent brown coal, 7.5 percent gas, 7.7 percent hydro and 0.3 percent oil, according to the Energy Supply Association of Australia.
Australia has three uranium mines -- Olympic Dam, owned by Australian miner WMC Resources, Ranger mine, owned by the Rio Tinto - controlled Energy Resources of Australia, and Beverley mine, owned by General Atomics.
"We can move to a conclusion that the development of Australia's uranium industry and its use for peaceful purposes would be very much in Australia's interests," Costello said.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last week that Australia had earmarked Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand as potential future uranium export markets if they undertook to limit its use to peaceful nuclear purposes.
Australia's government will only allow uranium to be exported to countries that have signed a bilateral nuclear safeguards deal to ensure the uranium is not misused. It has already signed 19 deals, covering 36 countries and is in talks to include China.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
