Antinuclear

Australian uranium to India? – policies of Gillard and Abbott?

It will come down to the Prime Minister.If Julia Gillard wants to sell yellowcake to India…

…Abbott now says he has ”no policy” on nuclear power plants.

Nuclear rethink over before it’s begun, Sydney Morning Herald, Katharine Murphy,17 March“…….Selling uranium to India is problematic, but still an outside prospect. It will come down to the Prime Minister.If Julia Gillard wants to sell yellowcake to India, then key figures on the Right and the Left will marshal the numbers to support the executive. But the spectre of post-disaster Japan will also complicate that debate. Opponents will say that if Fukushima can happen in a country such as Japan – a developed country with advanced technological capability and orderly governance – imagine what could happen in India. The Prime Minister will need to want to have the fight, and whether she does – when she has so many other fights at present – is unlikely, but only time will tell……..

Rational people don’t want nuclear power for its own sake. Only carpetbaggers and boosters will tell you nuclear is a perfect technology. Events in Japan show us nuclear’s downside. When it goes bad, it’s not just bad, but potentially catastrophic…..

Tony Abbott’s stance on nuclear, and for that matter on climate, has been populism itself.

Having been a cabinet minister in the Howard government, which took a considered look at the nuclear issue and resolved that Australia needed to add nuclear to the energy mix, Abbott now says he has ”no policy” on nuclear power plants.

I wonder where the old policy went? Presumably the way of Howard’s proposed emissions trading scheme.

The Opposition Leader cannot seem to make up his mind whether he accepts the climate science or not. One minute he does, the next minute carbon dioxide is not a ”villain”. Abbott, according to a highly irritated Malcolm Turnbull, once confessed he was a ”weathervane” on climate change. Recent comments from the Opposition Leader indicate that self-criticism was about right.

Nuclear rethink over before it’s begun

March 16, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News