The Resources and Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, presided over the signing of a joint venture in Perth to establish Western Australia's first uranium mine.

"The Australian Government strongly supports the expansion of uranium mining in Australia as it will bring significant economic benefit to Australians and play a major role in international efforts to reduce CO2 emissions," he said.

The mine will provide uranium primarily to Japan. Japan Australia Uranium is one of the investors in the mine, along with Canada's Mega Resources.

Mr Ferguson said Australia did not need nuclear power because it had an abundance of other energy sources whereas countries to which Australia exported uranium did not.

His Opposition counterpart, Ian Macfarlane, also in Perth, used a speech to the annual uranium conference to reignite his long-held passion for nuclear power. Mr Macfarlane said the the current environment of looking for low-carbon energy sources necessitated debating nuclear power.

"What has been lacking in this debate, at least on behalf of the Government, has been any concrete plan to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions without compromising our economy and energy security," he said.

"A dark cloud now hangs over the future of the Australian coal-fired electricity sector."'

He said coal would continue to supply baseload power for another 15 years at least "but after that, who knows?"

The Government was avoiding nuclear power by putting its faith in clean coal technology which was, at this stage, all words, he said.

The mining giant Rio Tinto has also pressed the Government to adopt nuclear power.

The Government, which ran a scare campaign on nuclear power before the last election, continues to reject it.

However, the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, is open-minded about nuclear power but says it would need bipartisan support to succeed.