Antinuclear

Nuclear power a No No for Australia for the foreseeable future

The Labor Party has reaffirmed its opposition to nuclear power and the Coalition has dropped its tepid support for the introduction of nuclear power.

A poll by Roy Morgan Research several days into the Fukushima crisis found that 61% of Australians oppose the development of nuclear power in Australia, nearly double the 34% that support it.

A Lowy Institute poll in June came up with near-identical results. The Morgan poll found that just 12% of Australians would support a nuclear plant being built in their local area, 13% would be anxious but not oppose it, and 73% would oppose it.

Fukushima: the political fallout in Australia, Green Left, July 4, 2011, By Jim Green, “…..Nuclear power in Australia, TEPCO has for many years put profits ahead of safety and this is the root cause of the nuclear disaster., Commonsense and prudent emergency planning would have protected emergency diesel generators against the March 11 tsunami. Working generators would have prevented the explosions and fires by maintaining reactor cooling.

The problems were not limited to TEPCO — they were (and are) systemic problems arising from the control of Japan’s nuclear industry by a clique of corporate executives, supine regulators and captured bureaucracies.

Similar problems are evident in Australia. In the past year, three whistleblowers have raised concerns about safety standards at the Lucas Heights nuclear research reactor site operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

All three were suspended. The government’s health and safety watchdog Comcare produced a report highly critical of ANSTO’s safety record and its treatment of whistleblowers, but instead of acting on the report the federal government called for further reviews.

The non-independent regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), has produced two reports into the problems at ANSTO.

The reports contradict each other so now there is a review into ARPANSA. The upshot of all this — lots of reports and reviews, most of them not worth the paper they’re written on, and no safety improvements at Lucas Heights.

Thankfully there is no prospect of these clowns operating nuclear power plants in Australia. The Labor Party has reaffirmed its opposition to nuclear power and the Coalition has dropped its tepid support for the introduction of nuclear power.

A poll by Roy Morgan Research several days into the Fukushima crisis found that 61% of Australians oppose the development of nuclear power in Australia, nearly double the 34% that support it.

A Lowy Institute poll in June came up with near-identical results. The Morgan poll found that just 12% of Australians would support a nuclear plant being built in their local area, 13% would be anxious but not oppose it, and 73% would oppose it……http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/48075Nuclear

July 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics