Antinuclear

Nuclear power for Australia – impractical and problematic

The Age 13 Oct 09 Is nuclear power the only way to meet Australia’s future energy needs and cut carbon emissions? Geoff Strong and Ian Munro report.

“……………..  La Trobe University professor Joseph Camilleri. ”I don’t think we have anywhere near a fully fledged, widely accepted, long-term system of waste disposal. Until and unless that comes through … to be thinking of a substantial expansion of the industry is foolhardy,” he says.

Equally pertinent, he says, is that while nuclear power, in theory, may help counter climate change, in practice it is problematic. The reality is the sizeable expansion of nuclear energy would take place in parts of Asia and Latin America, which may not meet the operational and waste-handling challenges. There would be serious questions about ”the technical, regulatory and other requirements, and whether on grounds of safety, waste disposal and proliferation they would be able to meet the standard that we currently accept in most parts of the industrialised West”, Camilleri says…………

Mark Wakeham, director of Environment Victoria’s anti-Hazelwood campaign, says political and practical obstacles such as the long construction time for nuclear plants, stand in the way. ”It takes decades and we don’t have decades,” Wakeham says. ”Every proposed nuclear power plant in the last two decades internationally has delivered over budget and has been significantly delayed.

Our view is it’s inherently problematic. It’s a very large consumer of water so there’s very few locations that you could actually site a nuclear power station in Victoria. Basically it would need to be near Port Phillip Bay or Western Port Bay, and if you reckon it’s hard to get a wind farm constructed in Victoria at the moment, try building a nuclear power station.”………….

October 13, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium | antinuclear, Australia, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium