Western Australia is renowned for exporting a range of minerals from iron ore to gold, but one commodity, uranium, regularly sparks fierce protests from the community.
However, industry observers say the public often attaches the risks of nuclear power to uranium mining — despite them being separate issues — and a viable uranium mining trade could be established if it undertook some reputational repair work.Uranium mining occurs in other states but has been prohibited by the WA government since 2017.
This kind of reputational damage, as well as environmental questions about nuclear waste management, lie at the heart of uranium's problem, according to analyst Peter Strachan."The industry still has a lot of work to do to build that trust. What's being spoken about in WA is uranium mining, and that's completely different .
" it's just a rock that occurs in the ground and it's a little bit radioactive, but so are a lot of other rocks."For her part, Libby Mettam distanced herself from the prospect of nuclear power plants in WA and said uranium mining in the state would be for export to markets with established nuclear energy.
He said selling uranium to markets in the US and European Union, where nuclear energy is a pillar of net zero emissions goals, could be profitable for years to come.