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Originally Posted by Bushmiller
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Originally Posted by woodPixel
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Originally Posted by NeilS
but don't forget that in 2021, the Australian Government cancelled their contract to buy 12 French nuclear subs -- the French subs were to be reconfigured so that they are powered by diesel engines.
What does that decision (nuclear powered submarines) mean in terms of the future of nuclear power for Australia.
The current research reactor at Lucas Heights doesn't cut it.
So will Australia be supplied with highly enriched uranium to run the new [US or, more likely UK designed and constructed] subs? The basis being that highly enriched uranium allows the sub's reactors to be fuelled for life.
HOWEVER, note that supplying Australia with highly enriched uranium would seemingly violate the wording of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Australia is a signatory. However, I'm not sure that leasing the subs, and their uranium filled reactors, to Australia would necessarily violate the wording of the NNPT. If Australia were to only lease the nuclear subs, would the highly enriched uranium fuel still be technically under US or UK control? If that were the case, the reactors, once their cores were depleted, could be returned to the US for NNPT verification.
Alternatively, Australia might need to develop their own nuclear industry so that they can operate the planned nuclear subs independently of the US's and/or UK's nuclear industry.
That would be an argument to develop a domestic Australian nuclear power industry that does not require any rational economic evaluation.
Alternatively, Australia could return to the, now cancelled, contract to acquire eight or so French nuclear subs. Australia's decision to adopt nuclear power for their new subs would mean that the design delays associated with attempting to shoe-horn a diesel engine, and the large fuel tanks required to attain the operation range desired, into a space designed for a nuclear reactor would no longer be an issue.
Note that although the French subs need refuelling every ten (?) years, they run on low enriched uranium so don't violate the NNPT.
And if a Los Angles class or an Astute class nuclear sub were redesigned to accommodate refuelling, there is no guarantee that the design delays experienced with the French subs would not be repeated.
