A POWERFUL union has backed a nuclear future for South Australia, citing potential annual income worth $2 billion and jobs for 10,000 workers.

The Australian Workers Union outlined what it believes are the benefits in a submission to SA’s Nuclear Royal Commission, and posted to the inquiry’s website on Monday.

“This submission asserts that the potential economic and employment benefits of the nuclear fuel cycle are vast, and that failure to act would represent a lost opportunity for South Australia,’’ the AWU submission states.

“If Australia’s domestic uranium production was increased in line with its natural uranium endowment, export revenue would be $2 billion per annum.

“It can be extrapolated that a fully developed South Australian nuclear fuel cycle would employ over 10,000 workers.’’

The AWU is one of the most powerful unions within the ALP, with 100,000 members including mine workers, and boasts Opposition Leader Bill Shorten as a former national chief.

The union submission is among 73 made public by the Royal Commission, many of which are opposed to any expansion of nuclear opportunities beyond mining uranium.

The Cancer Council of SA expressed concerns that South Australians would be exposed to radiation, and another prominent union the CFMEU has opposed nuclear enrichment, power and dumping.

The most outspoken opposition came from Friends of the Earth Adelaide which stated that: “Nuclear power is not economically viable and poses unacceptable risks. Nuclear power generation is inevitably and inextricably linked to nuclear weapons proliferation, and is

also vulnerable to terrorism’’.

Greens MLC Mark Parnell said many people were being put off by the submission process which required a signature by a Justice of the Peace.

“The Royal Commission insisted that submissions be sworn before a JP. That was unnecessary, disempowering and elitist,’’ he said.

“I (also) told the Royal Commission that they had misjudged the nature of their task and that they are misguided to think that the nuclear debate is only about facts and figures. It’s also about our moral responsibilities to future generations and to the planet,’’ he said.

Richard Yeeles, a member of the State Government’s Resources Industry Development Board told the Royal Commission it needed consensus: “If the nuclear industry in Australia is to move into a third phase, the experience of its second phase highlights that there is a prime need for national political leadership and consensus to encourage and enable an expansion in which the public and potential investors will have confidence’’.

Liberal Senator Sean Edwards, in his submission, used academic papers to value the expansion of the nuclear industry at $28 billion to SA.

The South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy said the industry could build on its current contribution of $17 million in royalties to the SA budget. It cited a potential SA budget windfall of $168 million in profits and $1.15 billion in royalties from modelling of an enrichment facility completed in 1983.

Business SA, in a yet to be released submission, backs the case for a nuclear waste dump.

“South Australia’s clearest economically viable expansion opportunity in the nuclear fuel cycle will be in the form of used storage and disposal with appropriate safeguard requirements in place,’’ the submission states.

“South Australia’s underlying fiscal position is far from satisfactory and underlies the need to consider all economic development opportunities to restore strength.’’