Council
18 September, 2025
Tehan goes nuclear in the states
MEMBER for Wannon Dan Tehan has set off for the United States of America as part of a study tour on nuclear energy.
Mr Tehan, who serves as shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction, will be meeting with key Office of Nuclear Energy acting assistant secretary Dr Mike Goff and representatives from the US Department of Energy, US research and development institutions and leading energy and finance companies.
As part of the study tour, Mr Tehan is visiting the Idaho National Laboratory, where world-leading research on the development of Small Nuclear Reactors is being undertaken, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee which leads the Department of Energy’s innovation network for fusion energy.
Mr Tehan said the trip would serve as a “fact-finding mission”.
“I want to visit a couple of the big national laboratories in the US, such as Idaho and Oak Ridge, to have a look at what’s happening when it comes to small modular reactors in particular,” he said.
“I’ll also be discussing fusion because there will be a fission reactor, which will be up in trialling and in 2027 here in the US. We need to be across these developments because if the world continues to move down the path of both fission and fusion, Australia is going to be completely and utterly left behind because we have a nuclear ban at the moment in place.
“If we're not careful, the rest of the world is going to move and we’re going to be left stranded.”
Mr Tehan said he also wanted to explore the potential for further cooperation between Australia and the US, such as through increasing uranium exports.
“We have 30 per cent of the global uranium deposit yet we only export eight per cent,” he said.
“If we're going to help the world decarbonize, then obviously, we need to be doing more when it comes to uranium and the export of uranium.”
Mr Tehan said as nations around the globe embraced nuclear technology, he feared Australia would fall behind without adapting to the times.
“Every major industrialised country, apart from Australia, is either seriously considering nuclear or is adopting nuclear technology at pace,” he said.
“We have to make sure that we are absolutely on top of everything that's going on.
“It’s not only in nuclear space when it comes to small module reactors and large scale reactors that have been built globally, but also the latest developments which are taking place in fission, which could be absolutely ground-breaking in five or 10 years’ time
“If we're not on top of this, then as a country, and especially as a nation which needs energy abundance to keep up with the rest of the world, we’re just not going to be in the picture.”
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