Antinuclear

Nuclear advertising man Ziggy Spinowski promotes dangerous new technologies for Australia

The vision is for the reactors to be installed on the seabed under 60m to 100m of water

Nuclear power’s friendly new face | The Australian, 29 Jan 2011, “……..According to former Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chairman Ziggy Switkowski, there has been a big escalation of interest in small reactors of about 100MW capacity for application in remote areas and small towns. He says small reactors are expected on the market within five years.

These reactors will be the size of two shipping containers and can be built underground. They will be gas-cooled, so they will not require large amounts of water and they can be expanded.

A range of small land-based demonstration nuclear reactors will soon be trialled in the US.

French group DCNS, which has been a supplier of nuclear submarines to the French Navy, this week unveiled a small offshore nuclear plant called Flexblue.

Flexblue is a cylindrical unit 100m long and 12 to 15m in diameter, which houses a small nuclear power reactor as well as steam generators, turbines and a generator to produce from 50MW to 250MW of electricity.

The vision is for the reactors to be installed on the seabed under 60m to 100m of water, several kilometres from a centre of demand such as a city, industrial base or remote community, served via underwater cables……..Switkowski has argued Australia should plan for its first nuclear reactor by 2020, aiming for a fleet size of 50 large reactors by 2050……..

But nuclear energy is still strongly rejected by many people in Australia. “A lot of people assume that the reason why the nuclear energy industry has never got off the ground fully here is community opposition based on health and security concerns but actually that is just part of the reason,” says the Greens’ nuclear spokesperson Scott Ludlam.

“In reality, the other reason is economics nuclear power plants are incredibly expensive to build, impossible to insure privately and when it comes to decommissioning, costs blow out hugely again,” he says…..

Nuclear power’s friendly new face | The Australian

January 29, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, spinbuster