WorleyParsons chief opens nuclear debate

The head of leading engineering group WorleyParsons, John Grill, today called for a fresh debate about the use of nuclear power in Australia, saying energy security and sustainability would be the defining issue of the coming decade.

"The driving forces we believe are creating the big changes in our business environment can largely be grouped under two banners: energy security and sustainability," Mr Grill told an Engineers Australia breakfast to launch 2010 as the year of engineering leadership.

"This will lead to us leaving the era of oil, and entering the era of clean electricity. This will cause a fundamental shift to our business and create many new opportunities."

With two thirds of the world's population already partly reliant on nuclear power, Mr Grill said Australia needed to understand the important global role it had to play in providing cost effective reliable power as that shift away from conventional energy accelerated.

"There are politicians on both sides who are starting to talk positively about nuclear power so at least that's a step forward.

"It would be good to get a bipartisan view about the need for the discussion, and if we can achieve that we'll have made good progress."

Mr Grill said it was up to the community to decide whether nuclear power was utilised in Australia.

However, engineers had a responsibility to ensure that "the best available technologies are developed and applied to nuclear power generation, so that the community can be fully informed of the broadest range of possible options".

"All I'm saying is that it (nuclear power) should be there as one of the contenders, and it shouldn't be ruled out by people having uninformed opinions that relate to things that might have happened 30 or 40 years ago," he said.

Just as all other technologies had moved forward in the last forty years, so had nuclear generation technology and it had to be considered in its contemporary context.

Mr Grill said the debate also needed to include rational discussion about what to do with nuclear waste.

"We are one of the world's major exporters of uranium, and if we are exporting the product, we should be part of the debate about how you treat the waste," he said.

Mr Grill said government leadership on how to address issues such as climate change were critical because "capitalism left on its own would do nothing".

"Government policy is therefore absolutely critical and this is why we believe that we, as an engineering profession, need to become more active in providing advice and input into government policy making so that the policies that are developed result in some sort of sensible engineering outcome," he said.

He said companies also needed to actively consider sustainability as part of their everyday business planning in an environment of increasing regulation aimed at reducing carbon footprints.

Mr Grill said he expected a number of global trends to emerge over the coming decade, including long term growth in renewable, hybrid and nuclear power generation; greater focus on energy efficiency and waste heat recovery; development of viable carbon capture and storage technologies; and increased reliance on desalination to provide the water needed by industry and the general population.

Turning to the renewed boom conditions in WA, Mr Grill said he did not believe skills shortages would be as critical as two years ago because of the localised nature of the latest resources boom.

"I think that the boom, the way we are heading into it, will be a lot more localised than what we saw last time, in relation to engineering and project delivery requirements" he said.

"It's easier in that a number of the areas around the world aren't nearly as busy as they were the last time ... and I don't see that being the case for some time."

Consequently, it would be easier to import skills where necessary.