Andrea Leong, Biologist, Political Leader, Australian Nuclear Advocate, September '24
Andrea Leong, Biologist, Politician, Nuclear Advocate
Meet the “tree-hugging bleeding heart”, Andrea Leong, a biologist and nuclear advocate.
As President of WePlanet Australia, Andrea Leong is currently driving two major campaigns; Rethink Nuclear, an attempt to overturn Australia’s ban on nuclear energy, and Reboot Food, an initiative to develop alternative proteins. As a previous candidate for Parliament and as the president of the Fusion Party, Leong pushed to include nuclear in energy discussions.
The ban on nuclear passed in 1999 as part of a political compromise. The Conservative party passed the ban because it was demanded by the Greens and the Democrats.
Like many Australians, Leong never thought about nuclear energy growing up in Warrnambool, a Southern coastal city near Melbourne. While Australia has some of the best solar resources in the world, as Leong explored energy and the electrical grid, she realized the difficulty of electrifying everything with solar, and the need for nuclear energy.
Outside of activism, Leong has pushed for nuclear energy politically. In 2016 and 2019, Leong ran for federal Parliament with the Science Party, running on a platform to lift the ban on nuclear and build a demonstration new generation reactor.
Shortly after the 2019 election, the Science Party merged with a few other small parties to form the Fusion Party, reducing the strength of the nuclear position, but retaining support to repeal the ban.
Australia has a long way to go to decarbonize their entire economy; 62% of their grid is dirty, they need to decarbonize transportation, and they export coal and gas. Leong hopes to see Australia add nuclear generation to the mix by the 2040s to aid in this process.
Leong’s passion for nuclear energy stems from her love of the environment and of humans, which is why she calls herself a “tree-hugging bleeding heart.” Leong said she practices pro-human environmentalism, taking care of people, food, and energy.
In 2022, WePlanet Communications Director Tyrone D’Lisle asked Leong to be a founding member of WePlanet Australia, an organization that shared many of Leong’s beliefs.
“I do care about nature and I care about people, and that's actually something that put me off from the traditional environmental movement, because there's a lot of concern for nature, but less concern for people I found in those movements,” Leong said. “So the difference with WePlanet is that we are concerned about people as well. We think people are good. People deserve to live good lives, and it's important that people maintain a high living standard, or are lifted out of poverty.”
Coming from a background in biology and epidemiology, Leong said her perspective on energy often comes from a human health lens. While a stigma that nuclear is dangerous to human health lingers around nuclear, Leong said that, looking at the data, she found it to be the opposite, quite safe. As an advocate, she said a large role of hers is to allay fears of the public.
Leong in front of Barakah Nuclear Plant in the UAE, while attending COP 28 in Dubai as a pro-nuclear activist. She captioned a Twitter/X post of the photo: “Can we get one?”.
In September, WePlanet Australia, Nuclear for Climate Australia, and the Going Fission podcast held a pro-nuclear event in Latrobe Valley, a significant coal region - 120 people from the local community attended presentations and a Q&A. Leong said she was proud of the welcoming environment to people both skeptical and supportive. Many environmentalists view nuclear as an ideal replacement for coal plants in rural communities.
WePlanet works in collaboration with Nuclear for Australia, Nuclear for Climate Australia, and the Coalition for Conservation to overturn Australia’s ban on nuclear. Australian youth Will Shackel created Nuclear for Australia and started a widely circulated petition to repeal the ban.
While public support for nuclear dipped after Fukushima, Leong is encouraged by an increase in public support driven by concern for climate change, energy reliability, and high electricity prices. She views nuclear as a long term project in Australia.
Australia’s current energy plan is to replace coal (Australia’s largest source of electricity) with gas and renewables. Nuclear could replace the coal plants by the 2040’s if the government began exploring a program now, Leong said and could prevent some of the recent deforestation used to make land for wind and solar.
Leong, left, at a WePlanet pro-nuclear protest.
In addition to constraints on solar and wind, Australia runs a modern economy with significant heavy industry that require constant and reliable power, including mining, steel production, pulp and paper production, and shipbuilding.
“We've got our transport. There's our industry. We’ve got the hospitals. We've got heavy industry that needs reliable electricity 24/7,” Leong said. “So the scale of the Clean Energy Transition is often missed in these discussions. That's why I don't want us to put all our eggs in the wind and solar basket. Because Australians, if we fail, Australians, aren't going to accept blackouts. They will just keep burning gas.”
For Leong, nuclear offers the best chance of achieving Australia’s decarbonization goals.