Voter backing renews push to lift NSW uranium ban - australianmining.com.au

A survey conducted by Essential Poll found 60 per cent of NSW voters support lifting the state's ban on uranium mining, with support highest among Coalition voters and lowest among Greens voters. The finding has prompted the NSW Minerals Council and other industry groups to renew calls for the state government to allow uranium extraction. The ban has been in place since 1986.

Where this fits

Uranium production sits outside Australia's renewable-and-storage energy narrative, yet it directly addresses the firm-power requirement that renewables alone cannot meet at current costs and timescales. A domestic uranium sector would strengthen Australia's energy sovereignty and reduce dependence on fuel imports. The question is not whether nuclear has a role in decarbonisation, it does, but whether Australia can build new nuclear capacity fast enough to matter for the 2030s grid, and whether the regulatory and industrial base exists to do it at competitive cost.

What it means

Voter openness to uranium mining does not translate automatically into nuclear power plants. NSW has no operating reactors and no near-term construction pipeline. Lifting a mining ban is a precondition, not a solution. That said, if small modular reactors or new-generation plants are to be part of Australia's mid-century grid mix, domestic fuel security removes one foreign-supply vulnerability. Australia holds 30 per cent of global uranium reserves. Using them would reduce exposure to fuel-price shocks and geopolitical leverage from suppliers, and would shift the logic of grid resilience away from the assumption that firming capacity must come wholly from gas and batteries.