Antinuclear

Top scientist explains nuclear process and risks: Sunshine Coast previously considered for facility

Sunshine Coast News, STEELE TAYLOR, 6 MARCH 2024

A leading local academic has detailed the risks posed by nuclear power, amid revelations the Sunshine Coast was, in 2007, put on a shortlist of possible sites for a facility.

Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe says there are multiple problems with nuclear energy, including high costs, lengthy builds, health threats and international tension.

Professor Lowe explained the process of nuclear energy production, and the potential for accidents.

“In a nuclear reactor, the process of fission (breaking up of unstable large atoms like uranium) releases heat energy, which is used to boil water,” he said.

“It is basically just a more complicated way of boiling water than burning coal or gas.

“The steam produced by the boiling water is used to turn a turbine and generate electricity.

“In normal operation, nuclear reactors have a good safety record but there have been a series of large-scale accidents like the Windscale fire, the Three Mile Island meltdown, the Chernobyl explosion and the destruction of the Fukushima reactor by a tsunami.

Those accidents have made people nervous about living near a nuclear power station.

“In the cases of Chernobyl and Fukushima, whole regions have been made permanently uninhabitable because the radiation levels are not safe for people to live there.

“As well as the small but non-zero risk of serious accidents, nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste that will need to be safely stored for thousands of years.

“This is a problem that is causing real headaches for all the countries that have nuclear power stations, with only one – Finland – being on the path to a solution.”

Professor Lowe says nuclear energy production has multiple requirements, and locations for power plants have been considered.

“If we were to build a nuclear power station in Australia, the need for massive amounts of cooling water would demand a coastal site,” he said.

“It would also need to be connected to the electricity grid and ideally be near a major power user like a capital city.”

The Australia Institute used a checklist of the needs to produce a shortlist of possible sites for nuclear power plants, for a research paper that was produced in late 2006 and released in early 2007.

The Sunshine Coast, where Professor Lowe has lived for the past 20 years, was among the locations named.

“In a nuclear reactor, the process of fission (breaking up of unstable large atoms like uranium) releases heat energy, which is used to boil water,” he station.

“In the cases of Chernobyl and Fukushima, whole regions have been made permanently uninhabitable because the radiation levels are not safe for people to live there.

“As well as the small but non-zero risk of serious accidents, nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste that will need to be safely stored for thousands of years.

“This is a problem that is causing real headaches for all the countries that have nuclear power stations, with only one – Finland – being on the path to a solution.”

Professor Lowe says nuclear energy production has multiple requirements, and locations for power plants have been considered.

“If we were to build a nuclear power station in Australia, the need for massive amounts of cooling water would demand a coastal site,” he said.

“It would also need to be connected to the electricity grid and ideally be near a major power user like a capital city.”

The Australia Institute used a checklist of the needs to produce a shortlist of possible sites for nuclear power plants, for a research paper that was produced in late 2006 and released in early 2007.

The Sunshine Coast, where Professor Lowe has lived for the past 20 years, was among the locations named.

“It is worth adding that the tsunami of panic among sitting members of parliament when that list was released had to be seen to be believed,” he said.

“But we do now have a local member (Fairfax MP Ted O’Brien), promoting nuclear energy with great enthusiasm.”

There is no indication that the Sunshine Coast is on a current shortlist of possible sites………..

Mr O’Brien has previously said, via ABC Radio National, that he would welcome a nuclear facility in his electorate or any other electorate, “where it is proven to be technologically feasible, has a social licence and is going to get prices down”.

But he also told Sunshine Coast News that a nuclear facility would probably be better placed somewhere other than the Coast………………..

Legalities and history

Professor Lowe says there would be legal hoops to jump through to make nuclear power production possible in the country.

“Nuclear power is not legal in Australia. To get support for its Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in 1999, the Howard government included clauses that specifically prohibit uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication and the building of power reactors,” he said.

“So, any proposal for nuclear power would require repealing that prohibition.

“The current government has no interest in doing that; neither did the Coalition at any point in their nine years in office.

“Since the 2007 report, no Australian government – national or state, Coalition or ALP – has shown any serious interest in nuclear power………… there is certainly enough opposition to make any politician very nervous about the chances of the community supporting it.”…………………………………………….. https://www.sunshinecoastnews.com.au/2024/03/06/academic-outlines-risks-of-nuclear-power-coast-on-shortlist/?fbclid=IwAR2I76u7tz5tjM31QVgAq3P_UBlTk8qySjV7dflzmrLmWai10-bUq65Cq9Q—

March 7, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Queensland