Uranium Export of Australia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Uranium Export of Australia - Essay Example We had seen how militarized Iraq attacked hapless Kuwait with a view of controlling its oil wells. But with climate change, nature alone will signal the demise of our mother earth. It's important to note down that there is only one common solution to both problems and that is, nuclear reactors. Why Let us elucidate things before we tackle the subject of uranium-fueled nuclear reactors. The pages of newspapers tell us that the world climate has gone berserk. It is a fact that the ocean's water levels are fast rising putting to danger of being swallowed by the oceans low-lying atolls, islands and continents. This is the end result of the melting of the ice-caps of Greenland and Antarctica due to the elevation of world temperature as a result of the blanketing of earth by greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane etc. that are the emissions of industries which burn coal, petroleum and natural gases (Suplee 55). Engineers and scientists' solution to generate electricity for power plants, heat for industries and domestic use and propulsion for nuclear marine and rocket propulsion (Kunstler 139). What is important is that the process doesn't involve emission of gases that causes global warming. But there cannot be any nuclear power without uranium-235 or plutonium-239. But since plutonium is a rare radioactive, metallic chemical element and uranium widely occurs in nature and is mined in great quantities in Australia and elsewhere as uraninite or pitchblende ore, then only uranium is being used worldwide. Like global warming, the world is also saddled by both soaring petroleum prices and depletion of fossil fuels such as oil and coal which happen to cause climate change. Like hopeless addicts, industrialized nations are dependent on oil, which prices are controlled and manipulated by OPEC as well as by events in oil-producing countries. Thus, the soaring cost of oil is wreaking havoc on economies all over the world, weakening the dollar and causing global financial crisis. Businesses and consumers are feeling the pinch as lives of the common masses are pushed to desperation with high prices of goods and high inflation (Morrell 87). While some are scampering to search for oil substitutes such as biofuels and jatropha seed oil, most developed nations have set their eyes on uranium-fueled nuclear power plants as the solution to the problem. Nuclear power plants cannot run without uranium. Thus, the high demand for uranium from countries such as Australia. In fact Martin Ferguson, Australia's Minister for Resources and Energy was quoted as saying: "Energy security and climate change are set to drive a significant increase in global demand for Australia's uranium. With around 27% of the world's