Antinuclear

“Peaceful” nuclear power and nuclear weapons are intrinsically connected. The weapons industry itself recognises this.:

“There is no technical demarcation between the military and civilian reactor and there never was one. What has persisted over the decades is just the misconception that such a linkage does not exist.”  – Los Alamos National Laboratory

The “new nukes” Lobby would have you believe that with their (so far non-existent) Generation IV nuclear reactors, there is now no connection with weapons.

Well, there IS – whether it be producing materials for bombs, especially “dirty bombs” and as an attraction for terrorists, or as a target for enemies in war-time.

The more subtle connection –  PRODUCING EXPERTISE FOR THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS INDUSTRY.

While the “conventional” and the “new” nuclear industries both claim that they have no connection with weapons, the Generation IV spruikers actually claim to promote non proliferation of weapons.

In reality, much the same expertise is needed for both.

For Australia, the push for nuclear weapons (which has gone on since the 1950s)  always involved nuclear power first. Today’s push continues, to the extent of the Federal Government providing $50 billion for a particlar type of submarine that could easily be converted to nuclear subs.

The Defence State hype in South Australia continues.  In 2016 the federal government announced a $230 million national Centre for Defence Industry Capability in Adelaide. The South Australian nuclear enthusiasts, such as Business SA chief executive Nigel McBride jumped on this.

Generation IV nuclear reactors cannot get private investment (beyond a small group of billionaires). They depend on tax-payer funding. You would think that this situation would be pretty much fatal for their industry. However, with the conventional big nuclear reactors industry in a financial meltdown in America, and France, the nuclear industry as a whole desperately needs a boost.

The nuclear weapons industry needs to maintain a troop of experts, and to attract young men and women. The new gee-whiz “renaissance” for Generation IV forms just such an attraction. The support for new nukes includes generous funding for universities in USA and Britain, some in Australia, too.. Whether that support comes from government or from industry hardly matters. The nuclear weapons industry benefits from an assured supply of nuclear physicists and chemists whether their training is supposed to be for new nuclear power, nuclear medicine, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors..