Does Australia really have a nuclear future?
Courier Mail By Graham Readfearn
August 26, 2009
TALKING to former nuclear physicist Dr Ziggy Switkowski about nuclear power is akin to having a discussion about an expensive trip to the shops.
…………How the advocates for a nuclear Australia must wish the issue was as easy to sell to the Australian public as the virtues of a new gigantic flat-screen television or frost-free freezer.
Dr Switkowski, now chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, led the Howard Government’s nuclear review, published in 2007, which headlined with the news that Australia could have 25 reactors running by 2050.
Earlier this week Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce became the latest public figure to raise the issue, when he called for a debate and referendums on nuclear power………………………..
…..the conclusion that renewables cannot deliver baseload power is one that irritates anti-nuclear advocates such as Ian Lowe, the emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University inBrisbane and the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Lowe says that if nuclear is the answer, “then you are asking the wrong question”.
“People are asking how can we continue to provide large amounts of energy so that we can continue to use it wastefully.” He says renewables are already providing baseload power in other countries. In particular, Spain and the US state of California have invested heavily in solar thermal technology
There is no doubt the nuclear debate is clouded by politics, ideology and mis-information. For example, Switkowski dismisses the issue of nuclear waste, which he says is easily resolved. Yet he admits that as yet no country in the world has built a long-term facility to store it.
But there are some undeniable issues facing nuclear power. Start-up costs are massive and the plants take a long time to build, even after the lengthy approval processes. All this at a time when climate change is demanding urgent and rapid reductions in emissions……
…….it is the issue of public resentment that might be the greatest obstacle of all………..
Despite Switkowski claiming public fears are dissipating, Lowe says he is yet to see any evidence.
“What is true is that people like Ziggy keep saying that, in the hope it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those supporting nuclear power have been punching this new line that it’s the answer to climate change even when the community doesn’t support it on other grounds.
“The Switkowski report which cast nuclear in as good a light as I think you could, said it would take 10 to 15 years to build one reactor. Even building 25 reactors by 2050 only reduces the growth in our emissions by 18 per cent. The evidence is there in his own report that nuclear does not solve the problem of rising emissions.”
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25983701-8362,00.html
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