Antinuclear

No optimism for the nuclear industry on any side of Australian politics

Ludlam accuses the nuclear industry of “indestructible optimism”. He says the industry will “go off a cliff” as ageing reactors reach the end of their design lives..

Opposition energy spokesman Ian Macfarlane says the Coalition’s previous nuclear power policies have “all been shelved as a result of Fukushima”

Long and cold dawn of the nuclear age, by: CHERYL JONES, The Australian, March 09, 2013 Cheryl Jones is a science journalist and author. She has previously worked at ANSTO. “…….There are still no plans for a nuclear power plant in Australia.

Labor has long opposed the deployment of nuclear power here, but Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the issue might be on the agenda of a future government by the end of the decade as Australia continues to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He stresses that Australia will meet its immediate target under the Kyoto Protocol, however.

The Coalition, once open to the idea of domestic nuclear power because of its near-zero carbon emissions, reversed its position in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster two years ago. The Australian Greens remains vehemently anti-nuclear…….

The Fukushima Daiichi plant is being decommissioned. Japan shut down its other reactors after the accident and two have since been restarted, he says.

Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam predicts “pitched battles, arrests, legal challenges and contest and conflict” if the new government attempted to restart other plants, but Cameron thinks the reaction would be mixed.

Germany, Switzerland and Belgium are phasing out nuclear power. But attention has focused on Britain and the US. Neither of these nuclear pioneers has built a new facility in 20 years.

Construction has started on one reactor in the US, and Cameron says site preparation is under way for a further three. EDF Energy will make a decision on its proposed new power station in Somerset, England, by the end of the year. “It depends on the agreed electricity strike price, so these are standard market decisions,” Cameron says.

Ludlam accuses the nuclear industry of “indestructible optimism”. He says the industry will “go off a cliff” as ageing reactors reach the end of their design lives……

A big question is how soon renewable energy, especially intermittent sources such as wind and solar, can be relied on to provide baseload power supply. Australia has huge renewable energy potential and is at the cutting edge of some clean energy technology. But proponents of nuclear power argue that, apart from hydro-electricity, renewable energy technology, although progressing, is too immature to keep power station turbines spinning constantly. Detractors dispute this.,,,,,

Ferguson says so far Australia has been able to rely on coal for its baseload power supply, and nuclear plants – which have high set-up costs – have not been competitive. “Frankly, it’s not commercial at the moment,” he says.

But he adds that Australia will reassess the cost and reliability of different forms of energy as 2020 approaches. “There will continue to be debate on the cost of nuclear reactors of different sizes,” he says…….

Opposition energy spokesman Ian Macfarlane says the Coalition’s previous nuclear power policies have “all been shelved as a result of Fukushima”. The Coalition will not revisit the issue without bipartisan and community support for nuclear power.

Says Ferguson: “Public opinion ebbs and flows. The Australian community is more open-minded today than it was in the 1970s when we went through the nuclear disarmament debate. In the end, these matters will be decided on questions of community demand for baseload, reliable energy at the cheapest possible cost.”

But in Ludlam’s view nuclear power as a non-starter. “As soon as you named the location of a nuclear power station in Australia, you’d instantly create a broad popular movement against that power station,” he says.

March 14, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized