The “compulsory acquisition” of water from farmers and coal mines would likely be required under the Coalition’s nuclear energy proposal, according to a new report.

Authored by Professor Andrew Campbell - the former Land & Water Australia Chief Executive - the report states the Coalition’s nuclear energy proposal would funnel up to 200 GL of water annually from “irrigation industries, town water supplies, industrial users and the environment”.

Commissioned by advocacy group Liberals Against Nuclear, the report investigated the water allocation necessary to build the Coalition’s seven proposed nuclear power reactors across Australia. 

Campbell estimated water consumption based on the latest nuclear reactors in the US state of Georgia, which began generating power in recent years. Like the Latrobe site, the Georgian facility is near an irrigation district where water is distributed to communities, farms and businesses.

By modelling the research on the same large reactor units (Westinghouse AP1000) the Coalition is proposing to build in Gippsland, the professor said he could accurately calculate the amount of water required for each site.

Latrobe Valley 

One of the proposed nuclear sites is Traralgon’s Loy Yang Power Station, currently operating as a brown coal-fired thermal power station.

The report says that to run the proposed five AP1000 reactors at 90 percent capacity “would require around 125 GL/year. This is about double what the three coal-fired facilities [Loy Yang A, Loy Yang B, and Yallourn] are using now”. 

Campbell said there would be a need for further water allocation to rehabilitate retired open cut mines. This is already the case for Hazelwood, and would be required to rehabilitate Loy Yang and Yallourn when those sites are retired.

The report says that the rehabilitation proposed for the three pits “is largely based around filling each pit with fresh water to form three new large lakes with an indicative capacity of around 2,800 GL (over five times the volume of Sydney Harbour)”.

The Victorian Government estimates it will take at least 637GL of water over a 10- to 20-year period to rehabilitate Hazelwood mine.

Talking to the Gippsland Monitor, Professor Campbell said “it's just very difficult to see how you can secure sufficient water to operate [a nuclear powerplant] at 90 percent capacity for 80 years, when at least out to 2065 there's a very large water requirement to rehabilitate the existing pits”.

“It means that you can't just transfer the existing water that's being used for coal fired power over to nuclear generation,” he added.

The report says that to acquire additional water the “most realistic option would be to acquire [around] 50% of entitlements in the Latrobe and Macalister irrigation districts”.

What does the Coalition say?

Liberal candidate for Monash, Mary Adlred, told Gippsland Monitor that “the previously four, now three coal fired power stations, all require a significant amount of water for their cooling stations”.

She said Latrobe was an appropriate location for nuclear power because of the “industrial power history that also has required significant amounts of water from reservoirs and local dams”.

“Each of these locations offer important technical attributes needed for a zero-emissions nuclear plant, including cooling water capacity and transmission infrastructure,” Opposition leader Peter Dutton said.

Liberals Against Nuclear

Liberals Against Nuclear spokesman Andrew Gregson, a former Tasmanian Liberal director and candidate, said in a statement: "The Nationals have spent 15 years educating rural communities on how much water buybacks hurt them and fighting tooth and nail to protect our agricultural water. Now, there is a proposal to take water from the very farmers who grow our food.”

What do other candidates think?

Nationals MP for Gippsland Darren Chester said in a statement: “A mix of zero-emissions nuclear technology and large-scale renewables is the preferred approach around the world to managing the transition away from fossil fuels over the next 25 years.”

Deb Leonard said in a statement that nuclear power is “not a viable proposition in any way, shape or form. We need lower power prices and a meaningful transition to net zero emissions now, not in 15-20+ years as would be the Coalition’s plan”.

Labor candidates for Monash and Gippsland, Tully Fletcher and Alison Stephens, are also opposed to the Coalition’s nuclear plan.