Nuclear engineer and former Miss America Grace Stanke has entered the fierce debate in Australia over its future energy policy with a 10-day national tour extolling the benefits of nuclear power in a country where it\u2019s been banned for almost 30 years. <\/p>\n
The speaking tour is familiar territory for the 22-year-old former beauty queen, who <\/strong>said she <\/strong>studied nuclear engineering as a \u201cflex,\u201d but now works for US energy giant Constellation as a spokesperson and as an engineer on its nuclear team. <\/p>\n Her recent <\/strong>arrival comes at a delicate time in Australia, months before a national election that could put the opposition Liberal Party in power, along with its promises to build seven nuclear power stations \u2013 upending the current Labor government\u2019s plan to rely on renewable energy and gas. <\/strong> <\/p>\n For several days, Stanke has been speaking to hundreds of Australians, in events organized by Nuclear for Australia (NFA), a charity founded by 18-year-old Will Shackel, who has received backing from a wealthy Australian pro-nuclear entrepreneur. <\/p>\n Most talks were well-attended by attentive crowds, but not all audience members were impressed by Stanke\u2019s message. <\/p>\n As she started to speak in Brisbane last Friday, a woman in the audience began shouting, becoming the first of several people to be ejected from the room as other attendees booed and jeered. One woman who was physically pushed from the premises by a security guard has since filed a formal complaint. <\/p>\n Stanke reflected on the rowdy Brisbane crowd with the poise of a seasoned pageant entrant. \u201cYou know what? I respect people because they\u2019re using their voices,\u201d she said, describing the heckling as \u201cprobably the most vocal experience I\u2019ve had.\u201d <\/p>\n Those against nuclear power say it\u2019s too expensive, too unsafe and too slow to replace Australia\u2019s coal-fired power stations that would need to keep burning for several more years until nuclear plants came online. <\/p>\n The fact that people are even talking about <\/strong>the proposal <\/strong>shows how much public discourse has changed in the three years since voters last went to the polls, then electing climate friendly candidates and Labor\u2019s pro-renewables policy. <\/p>\n Now, for the first time in decades, nuclear power is back on the election agenda, at the same time a backlash is building in rural areas against renewable energy projects that some say are erasing farmland, razing forests, and dividing communities. <\/p>\n Australia banned nuclear energy in 1998 as part of a political deal to win approval for the country\u2019s first and only nuclear research facility that\u2019s still operating in southern Sydney. <\/p>\n A change in government in an election, to be held before mid-May, would see seven nuclear reactors built in five states to provide power alongside renewable energy \u2013 a bold shift in direction that would not only require changes to federal law, but amendments to laws in states where premiers oppose nuclear power. <\/p>\n According to the plan proposed by Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton, the nuclear reactors would be funded by 331 billion Australian dollars ($206 billion) in public money and the first could be working by 2035. <\/p>\n Both forecasts are disputed as underestimates by the government acting on the advice of the country\u2019s independent science agency \u2013 the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) \u2013 which <\/strong>says renewables are still the cheapest and the most efficient way for Australia to reach net zero by 2050. <\/p>\n Shackel, NFA\u2019s founder, wants the nuclear ban lifted, pointing to a petition he started two years ago that has quietly accrued more than 80,000 signatures. <\/p>\n \u201cI think we need to move away from fossil fuels. Gas is a fossil fuel. So, I think that if we want to be able to move away from those sources, nuclear energy is something that\u2019s going to be increasingly important,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Shackel met Stanke at the COP 28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates in 2023, an event she attended as Miss America while finishing her degree in nuclear engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She says Australia is \u201calready kind of late\u201d to nuclear energy, \u201cso, you might as well start now.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI do believe that a strong grid requires both renewables and nuclear energy combined,\u201d she said, referring to the argument for a \u201cbaseload\u201d energy source that doesn\u2019t rely on unpredictable weather. <\/p>\n That argument is challenged by experts worldwide, who say the need for \u201cbaseload\u201d energy is an outdated concept, and that stability can be achieved by other means, including batteries. <\/p>\n While nuclear has dominated recent discussion about Australia\u2019s future energy mix, a steady rumble of discontent is growing louder from rural areas over the rapid rollout of renewable energy projects. <\/p>\n According to the Clean Energy Council, 85 renewable power generation projects are underway in Australia, along with 44 storage projects. <\/p>\n In the past two years, the number of petitions on Change.org opposing renewable energy projects has almost tripled, from 14 in 2023 to 37 in 2024 \u2013 alongside Facebook groups where communities are gathering to share stories and updates on protests. <\/p>\n Advance, a conservative campaign group that says it works to counter \u201cwoke politicians and elitist activist groups\u201d is promoting a 48-minute documentary it claims tells the \u201cuntold stories\u201d of farmers whose \u201clives have been upended by the rapid rollout of wind and solar projects.\u201d <\/p>\n Murrough Benson lives near the proposed site of a massive battery storage plant in Hazeldean, rural Queensland, that\u2019s currently moving through the council approvals process. He\u2019s in favor of renewables. They \u201chave their place,\u201d he said, but \u201cyou could argue that some of them are misplaced.\u201d <\/p>\n He and his wife Joy moved from Sydney to the area five years ago and hoped to enjoy a peaceful retirement. But now they\u2019re considering selling their house, fearing the constant hum and potential contamination of the air, land, and water from the battery system, in the event of fire or flood. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to live with something like that across the road,\u201d said Benson. <\/p>\n A numbers game<\/h2>\n
Rural opposition to renewables<\/h2>\n