“Chernobyl” miniseries is scary, but the dis-economics of nuclear power for Australia is scary, too
What’s more chilling: watching Chernobyl or cogitating on the cost of going nuclear? Michael West Investigative Journalism Jun 20, 2019, The sudden push by the Murdoch media and Coalition right-wingers to overturn Australia’s nuclear power ban ignores the chilling economic cost — huge public subsidies, storing radioactive waste for thousands of years, the heavy costs of decommissioning and, potentially, radiation-related health costs. Veteran nuclear writer Noel Wauchope reports on the popular TV series, Chernobyl, and the economics of nuclear power.
THE frightening TV miniseries “Chernobyl” could put a few Australians off the idea of nuclear power but nuclear economics might turn out to be the bigger scare.
It is bad news for the Minerals Council of Australia and nuclear lobbyists, that Chernobyl has now arrived on some Australian TV screens, but pro-nuclear advocates are continuing to push their campaign anyway.
The miniseries “Chernobyl” has just finished in Europe and USA, outdoing “Game of Thrones” in popularity. HBO’s Chernobyl topped film and TV database IMDB’s list of the greatest 250 TV shows of all time. The first episode was screened on 12 June, 2019 in Australia, on Foxtel.
The series has had a big impact. It was highly praised by numerous reviewers but criticised by pro-nuclear lobbyists, and infuriated some Russian politicians. ………
The Coalition’s renewed push for nuclear power
In March this year, 11 Coalition MPs (Andrew Broad, James Paterson, Tony Pasin, Tim Wilson, Chris Back, Craig Kelly, Eric Abetz, Andrew Hastie, Warren Entsch, Bridget McKenzie and Rowan Ramsey) urged then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to put nuclear power on the table as an electricity source for Australia. That call is now repeated by Queensland and Coalition MPs calling for an inquiry into the feasibility of nuclear power in Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he is open to considering nuclear power if it can stand on its own two feet. Energy Minister Angus Taylor told The Guardianon 12 June 2019 he wouldn’t rule out revising Australia’s nuclear ban “when there is a very clear business case which shows the economics of this can work”. Two days later, Environment Minister Sussan Ley also told TheGuardian she was open to the review considering a removal of the ban.
But — are the economics of nuclear power viable for Australia?
When even Australia’s former top nuclear promoter has doubts, it doesn’t look promising……….
How viable is nuclear power elsewhere?
Nuclear economics in America is really a tale of woe. You hardly know where to start, in trying to assess how much this industry is costing communities and tax-payers. There are the attempts to save the nuclear industry via subsidies. There are the continuing and ever-increasing costs of radioactive wastes. There are the compensation payments to workers with radiation-caused illnesses, $15.5 billion and counting, and the legal battles over where to put the wastes. Needless to say, really, America is not initiating any new nuclear “big build”. The much touted “Small Modular Nuclear Reactors” are turning out to have no market and little prospect of being economically viable……
The UK nuclear industry is in the doldrums with repeated postponement of new projects – Hinkley Point C, Wylfa Newydd, Moorside, Sizewell C, Oldbury B and Bradwell B……The 2018 forecast for future clean-up of Britain’s aging 17 nuclear power stations has blown out to £121 billion which has had to be spread across the next 120 years……
France’s Flamanville nuclear project is taking years, remains bogged down with costly problems. Electricite de France (EDF) has financial woes but hopes to save itself by switching from nuclear to renewables. France’s former nuclear giant AREVA went bankrupt and has changed its name to Orano and Framatome — and French tax-payers are still caught up in Areva/Orano costly legal corruption scandals.
Canada is up for increasing costs for managing its nuclear wastes. Interestingly, Canada abandoned its nuclear project for producing medical radioisotopes and now leads in non nuclear production of these isotopes.
India had grand plans for nuclear power, but has cut these back, and recently cancelled 57 reactors. It continues to have problems and many outages, at its huge Kudankulam nuclear station. ….
Russia keeps offering “generous” funding to the buyer countries. But will those countries end up with big debts? Reuters reports that in China, “No new approvals have been granted for the past three years, amid spiralling costs” ………….. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/whats-more-chilling-watching-chernobyl-or-cogitating-the-cost-of-going-nuclear/
Liberal and National party MPs mistaken. Nuclear power WAS investigated in 2015, and found to be uneconomic
Robyn Wood, 20 June 19, The Liberal and National party MPs are mistaken when they say that nuclear power hasn’t been investigated since nuclear physicist Ziggy Switowski. They need to be aware that the South Australian government had a Nuclear Royal Commission in 2015/6. The majority pro nuclear power members found that nuclear power was not economic compared to renewables. Renewable technology is rapidly improving and the price dropping, while nuclear power plant costs are rapidly escalating and plants being shut down across the world. The report is available online. Even Mr Switkowski said in 2018 “the window for gigawatt-scale nuclear has closed”. Now is not the time to waste precious taxpayer’s money but to get on building renewables that are cheaper than even coal.
GOLD Coast-based Federal MP Karen Andrews OK with nuclear power, but exactly where on the Gold Coast?
Gold Coast nuclear plant in the mix: but where would you put it on the tourist strip? , Gold Coast Bulletin, 19 June 19
GOLD Coast-based Federal MP Karen Andrews has been challenged on where she would want a nuclear plant on the Glitter Strip after not ruling out the energy option.
Ms Andrews, the Member for McPherson, was on Sky News today when asked about nuclear energy following the release of CSIRO’s Australian National Outlook report.
The report compares two versions of the Australia in 2060, and predicts the nation will enter a “slow decline” if challenges are not met head on.
The Industry, Science and Technology Minister was asked about the findings including that Australia could reach zero emissions by 2050.
But she admitted coal would be “part of the energy mix for some time in the future”.
Asked about nuclear energy, Ms Andrews replied: “I don’t have an issue with it being considered.”
Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler seized on the comments saying it was another senior Liberal backing nuclear.
“We know nuclear power plants need to be built near water so would Minister Andrews, the Member for McPherson, like the nuclear power stations in her electorate, lining the Gold Coast,” he said.
“Would the Minister prefer the nuclear plant in Coolangatta, Robina, Burleigh Heads or Palm Beach? Scott Morrison needs to make his position clear.”
Mr Butler said the Prime Minister last year had indicated “where something can stack up and can actually bring the prices down, well I’m all for it.”
“Just last week, Energy Minister Angus Taylor told would not rule out nuclear power either saying, ‘If there is a clear business case there is a clear business case’,” Mr Butler said.
“The pressure is now on Scott Morrison to take real action to end the energy crisis that emerged under the Liberal Government. “So far, all the Liberals are promising in energy is expensive new coal-fired power stations and a growing pressure from Morrison’s backbench for Australia to pursue even more expensive nuclear power.”
Researchers Find Radioactive Particles from Fukushima or other Nuclear Disasters Could Stay in Environment, Human Lungs for Decades
Aftermath of the Fukushima 2011 earthquake.View original post 467 more words
The Northern Territory’s opportunity – clean energy found a ‘pathway to prosperity’
 Clean energy found to be a ‘pathway to prosperity’ for Northern Territory, Renewable energy is not only a money-spinner for the NT, it can also help mining industries expand, a new report says, Guardian, Adam Morton@adamlmorton 20 Jun 2019 Energy development in the Northern Territory is a typically Australian story: it is backing fossil fuels – in this case gas – when it could, as one of the sunniest places on Earth, be reaping economic and environmental benefits from renewable energy.
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Climate Crisis: the window of opportunity for effective action is fast closing
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No System of Government Designed by Human Beings Can Survive What the Climate Crisis Will Bring https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28102591/india-drought-chennai-climate-change-five-years-transform/, The window to prevent the worst of it is closing. Fast. BY CHARLES P. PIERCE, JUN 19, 2019 It is a long held belief here in the shebeen that, thanks to those clever Chinese climate hoaxsters, the next world wars are going to be fought not over oil, but over water. This is especially true in places like India, which is currently in the middle of a murderous heat wave in which temperatures regularly top out at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and where hugely populated cities are running out of water. From the BBC: Residents have had to stand in line for hours to get water from government tanks, and restaurants have closed due to the lack of water. “Only rain can save Chennai from this situation,” an official told BBC Tamil. The city, which, according to the 2011 census, is India’s sixth largest, has been in the grip of a severe water shortage for weeks now. As the reservoirs started to run dry, many hotels and restaurants shut down temporarily. The Chennai metro has turned off air conditioning in the stations, while offices have asked staff to work from home in a bid to conserve water.. The water crisis has also meant that most of the city has to depend solely on Chennai’s water department, which has been distributing water through government trucks across neighborhoods. “The destruction has just begun,” an official said. “If the rain fails us this year too, we are totally destroyed.” And, as the Times of London reports, the combination of heat and drought not only is killing people, but also is emptying villages in the northern part of India. (Gee, I wonder where everyone will go and how welcome they’ll be when they get there?) And things among the people who have stayed so far are getting ugly. In the worst-hit areas many villages starved of water have been abandoned until the arrival of the monsoon brings relief, after weeks of temperatures topping 50 degrees. In the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan fighting has broken out over scarce water supplies, with police deployed to protect water trucks and wells. People have the misapprehension that we can recover from this state just by reducing carbon emissions, Anderson said in an appearance at the University of Chicago. Recovery is all but impossible, he argued, without a World War II-style transformation of industry—an acceleration of the effort to halt carbon pollution and remove it from the atmosphere, and a new effort to reflect sunlight away from the earth’s poles. This has to be done, Anderson added, within the next five years. “The chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero,” Anderson said, with 75 to 80 percent of permanent ice having melted already in the last 35 years. This is a part of the new normal, and it’s coming soon to a theater near you. But, not to worry. According to this guy, if we don’t turn things around on those clever Chinese climate hoaxsters in the next half-decade, we’re all screwed anyway. From those noted tree-hugging libs at Forbes: “We have exquisite information about what that state is, because we have a paleo record going back millions of years, when the earth had no ice at either pole. There was almost no temperature difference between the equator and the pole,” said James Anderson, a Harvard University professor of atmospheric chemistry best known for establishing that chlorofluorocarbons were damaging the Ozone Layer. “The ocean was running almost 10ºC warmer all the way to the bottom than it is today,” Anderson said of this once-and-future climate, “and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere would have meant that storm systems would be violent in the extreme, because water vapor, which is an exponential function of water temperature, is the gasoline that fuels the frequency and intensity of storm systems.”… No system of government devised by human beings can withstand what’s coming, any more than overbuilt coastal enclaves can. |
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Children and Youth Thyroid Cancer Cases in Fukushima and East Japan — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
By Mari Inoue June 17, 2019 OurPlanet-TV, an alternative media, is probably the only media in Japan that has been closely monitoring thyroid cancer cases among children and youth in Fukushima and East Japan. It is sad to learn that thyroid cancers among children outside Fukushima Prefecture are already reported. OurPlanet-TV reports that 9 thyroid […]
via Children and Youth Thyroid Cancer Cases in Fukushima and East Japan — Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
THE MELTING ARCTIC IS RELEASING POISON, DISEASE AND NUCLEAR WASTE
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THE MELTING ARCTIC IS RELEASING POISON, DISEASE AND NUCLEAR WASTE https://futurism.com/the-byte/melting-arctic-releasing-poison-disease-nuclear-waste JUNE 17TH 19__DAN ROBITZSKI_Wakey Wakey
As rising temperatures cause Arctic ice to melt, it’s freeing many things that we would be better off keeping trapped. Alongside the ancient fossils now peeking up from the disappearing permafrost lie frozen toxins, nuclear waste, and enough sequestered carbon to double the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today, according to BBC News. It’s a dire situation — failing to address global climate change has turned the Arctic into a ticking time bomb. Based on current fossil fuel usage, 70 percent of Arctic ice will be gone by 2100, but there will be more immediate effects as it thaws, according to the BBC story. Swedish Nuclear Waste Management, which stores nuclear waste for Sweden, Finland, and Canada, depends on permafrost to safely trap its spent fuel. The Doomsday Vault, a giant repository for plant seeds, also relies on a frozen Arctic. Dangerous diseases such as the Spanish flu, smallpox, and even the bubonic plague also lie dormant in the permafrost ready to spring back to life as temperatures rise. The solutions to the melting Arctic problem are the same as for the rest of climate change — decarbonize and cut emissions as quickly as possible. “The actions taken by the international community will have a substantial impact on just how much carbon will be released and how much of the permafrost will thaw,” Woods Hole Research Center scientist Sue Natali told the BBC. “We need to keep as much of the permafrost as we can frozen. And we do have some control of that.” |
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Chernobyl workers are adopting the site’s contaminated dogs, but not all of them are safe to pet
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Chernobyl workers are adopting the site’s contaminated dogs, but not all of them are safe to pet, Business Insider ARIA BENDIX, JUN 19, 2019,
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New explorer for rare earths in W.A. – doesn’t mention processing, or radioactive wastes
The 10GW solar vision that could underpin Northern Territory future — RenewEconomy
The NT’s untapped economic potential could be realised through large-scale investment in solar energy, a new BZE report has found. The post The 10GW solar vision that could underpin Northern Territory future appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via The 10GW solar vision that could underpin Northern Territory future — RenewEconomy
Copper and gold turns to renewables, OZ Minerals to power site with solar, wind and storage — RenewEconomy
OZ minerals will use a hybrid solar, wind and battery system to power its Carrapeteena Copper-Gold Mine in an effort to reduce diesel costs. The post Copper and gold turns to renewables, OZ Minerals to power site with solar, wind and storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Coober Pedy powered by 100 per cent renewables – most of the time — RenewEconomy
Coober Pedy hybrid grid operating at world leading 70% share of renewables, and at 100% wind and solar for more than half the time. The post Coober Pedy powered by 100 per cent renewables – most of the time appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Coober Pedy powered by 100 per cent renewables – most of the time — RenewEconomy
June 19 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Renewables Are Winning The Economics Battle Against New Coal And Gas, Stunning Study Shows” • Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that renewables are now the cheapest form of new electricity generation across two thirds of the world. Five years ago, they were cheapest in only 1% of the world, according to BNEF. [ThinkProgress] […]
South Australia’s “other” big battery is earning money, and keeping the lights on — RenewEconomy
The second big battery in South Australia, which can do things the Tesla big battery cannot, releases its first performance report. The post South Australia’s “other” big battery is earning money, and keeping the lights on appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via South Australia’s “other” big battery is earning money, and keeping the lights on — RenewEconomy
1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net/
Nuclear Power in Australia | FYI
of the week
EVENTS
22 February – Sydney – Climate Crisis: National Day of Action–
more at Action Australia
Victorian Government INQUIRY INTO NUCLEAR PROHIBITIONThe submission closing date is Friday 28 February 2020. more – https://antinuclear.net/2019/11/07/victorian-government-inquiry-into-nuclear-prohibition/
Climate Action (Nuclear has no role)- theme for February 2020
Germany’s Climate Action Plan: step-by-step to a liveable future. Nuclear power is of course completely excluded
