Federal Government ministers warn that future nuclear energy plants would consume large amounts of water that could be used for agriculture.
Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt told a Global Food Forum that nuclear energy generation could threaten the Australian agriculture sector’s future water security.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen issued a similar warning at a Canberra Press Club briefing in which he attacked the opposition’s proposal for nuclear power generation.
Federal Nationals leader David Littleproud has criticised the campaign, calling it hypocritical when the Federal Government is introducing water buybacks which will strip a further 450 Gl from irrigation communities.
Mr Littleproud said the Coalition had made it clear when announcing the proposed locations that their individual capacity would be limited by the existing coal plants’ existing water entitlements so nothing was taken from agriculture or communities.
“The Labor Government’s all renewables approach which firms their renewables with hydrogen requires more water and is already taking water from farmers and towns in central Queensland,” Mr Littleproud said.
He said Labor’s cancellation of nearly $7 billion of vital dam projects, and changing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to buy back an extra 450 Gl, demonstrated the Albanese Government’s hypocrisy and contempt for agriculture.
The Federal Government has also warned that nuclear energy threatens Australia's food production, with more than 11,000 farms near the opposition's proposed reactor sites.
The farms are located within an 80km radius of the seven earmarked sites, according to a data analysis released by the Federal Government last week.
Under international standards that radius is classified as an "ingestion exposure pathway" in which people may be exposed to radiation through contaminated food, milk and water after a nuclear leak.
US farmers in those zones must take on preventative measures in an emergency, such as providing livestock with separate feed and water, holding shipments and decontaminating produce.
"Based on international practice, farmers would need to take expensive steps during a nuclear leak and would need to inform their customers that they operate within the fallout zone," Senator Watt said.
Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria's Gippsland region, Callide and Tarong in Queensland, Port Augusta in South Australia, Collie in Western Australia, and Mount Piper and Liddell in NSW have all been earmarked as nuclear reactor sites.
Victoria's Latrobe Valley would be the hardest hit, with more than 4100 farms within the 80km radius.
Nuclear power was on the agenda as the nation's agriculture ministers met on July 18.
Ministers from every state and territory affected by the nuclear proposal released a joint statement, saying they had a duty to protect the future of the agriculture industry.
"We have serious concerns that this duty would be compromised by the federal opposition’s proposal for nuclear power in and around prime agricultural land," it said.
– with AAP.