Latest From QueenslandPeople power will be unleashed on Canberra if it proceeds with plans for a possible nuclear enrichment plant at Caboolture, Premier Peter Beattie threatened this morning.
The Premier said legislation passed by the State Government earlier this year made it a requirement that a referendum of all Queenslanders be held if a uranium enrichment plant was to go ahead.
"Let me say to the Prime Minister, don't do it. You will get a backlash against Queenslanders from one end of the State to the other," Mr Beattie said.
An organisation called Nuclear Fuel Australia Limited is reportedly preparing a study investigating the feasibility of a $2.5 billion dollar plant for one of two sites.
The ABC reported last night the NFA was investigating the option of Caboolture or Port Pirie in South Australia, and was said to be preparing the report for the Prime Minister.
The Premier said he believed a nuclear enrichment plant contradicted the image being portrayed by Queensland's second biggest industry - tourism - but rejected suggestions that it offered an alternative to greenhouse gas emissions from Queensland largest industry - mining.
"If we are serious about climate change, the answers are very simple - clean coal technology, geo-thermal and solar gas," he said.
"These are the research projects that we are pursuing."
Mr Beattie said current estimates showed energy produced by nuclear energy was three times as expensive as energy produced by coal and he said the issues of storing nuclear waste had not been resolved.
He conceded that legally Queensland could not stop a nuclear enrichment plant being built in Queensland.
"Legally, in the final analysis, 'no'. The Federal Government can legally overrule us," he said.
"But what we can do is use people power and we will use people power through a referendum to block it.
"All governments are subject to people power and we want a clear understanding from both sides of politics, 'Do they or do they not support a nuclear enrichment facility at Caboolture?'."