The Nuclear for Climate lobby group has nominated Snowy Valleys at Tumut and the Blowering Dam as potential sites for a new water-cooled nuclear power plant.
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The group based its recommendation on region's high-voltage transmission lines and access to water via rivers and dams for reactor cooling.
Nuclear power advocates and energy experts have differed on whether a reactor could be built in the region as NSW Parliament prepares to consider lifting a uranium mining ban.
Adelong resident and retired electronics engineer and former Snowy Hydro worker Cris Piper said nuclear power was a highly complex issue but building a reactor in Snowy Valleys was technically plausible.
"There's access to power and water for cooling. I was interested in nuclear as I worked in that industry briefly but there has been so much development in nuclear technology since then," he said.
"I wouldn't have enough technical background for the nuclear component but in terms of the gird and the location, I would say the location would be a candidate as it is near the Snowy Hydro scheme."
Mr Piper said there would be Snowy Valleys residents, himself included, would be "concerned" at any proposal to build a reactor in the area but nuclear "should be open to debate".
However, another electricity industry expert has said the Riverina would be better off with a focus on developing renewable energy projects.
In a 2016 report titled 'Regions of Interest for Nuclear Power Plants in NSW', Nuclear for Climate argues that parts of the Riverina and Albury would make potential nuclear power sites due to being near rivers for reactor cooling and 330 kilovolt transmission lines.
The plan proposes to use air cooling during low electricity demand times to bring down water usage but would need cooling towers or industrial-scale heat exchanges.
"To overcome issues surrounding temperature rises in inland locations cooling towers or mechanically driven systems known as hybrid and recirculating systems can be used. These are now the only option used in the United States under their EPA guidelines," the report stated.
"While recirculating systems don't add heat to the river or lake, they do consume water through evaporation. In Australia the availability of sizeable inland rivers are limited though a number of large reservoirs such as Hume Reservoir near Albury or Burrinjuck Dam near Yass could be studied for their suitability."
In the time since the report was published, electricity network operator TransGrid has begun work on a new $1 billion-dollar transmission line from Wagga to South Australia.
The federal government has also approved billions of dollars of work to build the 'Snowy 2.0' scheme to expand pumped hydroelectricity storage in the Snowy Mountains.
Principal Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology School of Electrical Engineering, Professor Gerard Ledwich, told The Daily Advertiser that Wagga would make a better site for renewable energy projects.
"[Wagga's position] is in the ballpark for making renewables much more viable," he said.
"There is plenty of wind power in South Australia and there is plenty of solar power in NSW.
"The advantage of putting renewables into the grid is you can have mutual reinforcement from different areas. The time of peak load in SA differs from that in NSW and the generation from different sources is different.
"The pumped hydro storage from Snowy 2.0 fills in the gap."
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A report from the standing committee on state development urging NSW to lift the ban on uranium mining has singled out the development of next-generation small, modular nuclear reactors as presenting a new opportunity for the state.
Wagga-based Nationals MLC Wes Fang, who is part of the state development committee, has declared he has confidence in the new smaller reactors to the point where he would live next to one.
Professor Ledwich said the small reactor technology faced the same challenges as 'clean coal'.
"The concept is fine but it turned out to be much more expensive to capture and store carbon dioxide, and more risky, than to simply to buy batteries," he said.
"Even though it was put forward as a mature technology at a lower cost, in both of those aspects they were not correct.
"The small nuclear reactor was being primary pushed in South Africa, but it is not, so far as I would call it, a well developed technology and the costs and the disposal of spent fuel issues still persist...the biggest hurdle is the uncertainty of disposal."