Antinuclear

Stacked pro nuclear panel, stacked audience, in Adelaide?

both the panel and the audience seemed to be composed entirely of nuclear energy supporters. Renewable energy was dismissed as irrelevant, there was virtually no mention of nuclear accidents, and Brook patronisingly dismissed community concerns about the location of nuclear plants as “juvenile”.

Greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, CPA – The Guardian, Peter Mac,  23 February 2011 ” ……. In a recent TV panel discussion (ABC 24, 19-02-2011), Adelaide University Professor Barry Brook argued strongly for Australia to develop a nuclear power industry based around fast nuclear reactors.

The discussion was peculiarly lopsided, as both the panel and the audience seemed to be composed entirely of nuclear energy supporters. Renewable energy was dismissed as irrelevant, there was virtually no mention of nuclear accidents, and Brook patronisingly dismissed community concerns about the location of nuclear plants as “juvenile”.

He pointed out that fast reactors produced far less waste than the current technology, and that the amount of nuclear waste generated in a national reactor system would only be the size of a golf ball for each member of the population, over each of their lifetimes. However, over the lifetime of a population of 22 million, that still comes to about 900 cubic metres of waste, the radioactivity of which would take 300 years to dissipate. That’s a very nasty legacy for our descendants.

Moreover, as Brook admitted, there are no fast reactors operating on a commercial basis now, and their commercial development would take at least ten years. So if nuclear power was accepted by the government as the right option to tackle climate change we would certainly not get fast reactors, we would end up with the current technology, with all its hazards, i.e. major carbon emissions from uranium mining, processing and transport, the need to store waste for about 200,000 years, and the ever-present danger of radiation from accidental spills and emissions.

CPA – The Guardian – #1490

February 24, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | marketing for nuclear, South Australia, spinbuster | South Australia