No, Australia is not the only nuclear-free country in the world

The quote originates from a 2021 2GB radio interview in which Mr Mundine discussed then prime minister Scott Morrison's reluctance to commit to nuclear energy with host Ben Fordham. In the interview, Mr Mundine said it was “hypocritical” of Australia not to use nuclear energy when we export uranium to other countries.

“We’ve got the technology – we export [uranium] to all these other countries – how hypocritical of us; we export it to all these other countries,” he said.

“Britain is taking up nuclear again, so is Germany, China’s doing nuclear, India’s doing nuclear…Every other country in the world is doing nuclear except us – we look like a bunch of idiots!” 

Mr Mundine has been politically active with both major parties, standing unsuccessfully for the Senate for the ALP in 2001 and failing to win a seat in the lower house for the Liberals in the 2019 federal election. He has long been an advocate for Indigenous enterprise, including in mining, and was a director of the now-defunct Australian Uranium Association.

Mr Mundine’s claim in his 2021 2GB interview that Australia is the only country in the world that does not use nuclear energy is incorrect. 

Online database Our World in Data’s nuclear tracker shows 48 countries, including Australia, did not generate any nuclear energy in 2021. 

Other countries without nuclear energy generators include Austria, Denmark, Ireland and Italy. However, they do import nuclear energy. Countries such as Germany and Switzerland have announced policies to phase out existing nuclear energy technology. 

Nuclear power plants operate in 32 of the world's 195 countries, according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), an international organisation that promotes and tracks the development of the global nuclear industry. The WNA’s Nuclear outlook says, as of September 2022, these countries generated about a tenth of the world's electricity. 

The nuclear energy debate is longstanding in Australia. Pro-nuclear advocates argue the technology could provide a reliable low-emission alternative to fossil fuels, helping to combat climate change. But some environmentalists argue nuclear power is not a renewable form of energy and poses significant environmental and community health risks, as well as being expensive to construct and maintain.