Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Government moves quietly on towards radiation facility for nuclear submarine programme

ARPANSA approves siting licence for ASA Controlled Industrial Facility

17 July 2024

ARPANSA has issued a licence to the Australian Submarine Agency to prepare a site for the prescribed radiation facility known as the ‘Controlled Industrial Facility’.  The proposed Controlled Industrial Facility will provide low-level waste management and maintenance services to support the Submarine Rotational Force – West program, which is being planned at the existing HMAS Stirling Navy Base, Garden Island, Rockingham, Western Australia.  

ARPANSA is responsible for licensing Commonwealth entities that use or produce radiation and applies a 
strict review and assessment process once a licence application is received………………………..

The siting licence approval is the first stage of a stringent licencing process that requires separate applications for siting, construction, operation and decommissioning.

Parliament is considering legislation to establish a dedicated naval nuclear power safety regulator, the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Regulator (ANNPSR). Until the new regulator is established, ARPANSA will regulate nuclear and radiological safety for ASA.

Future applications for the Controlled Industrial Facility are likely to be made while ARPANSA remains the regulatory authority for nuclear and radiological safety for ASA. The CEO has committed to continuing to invite public comment on all future ASA facility licences considered by ARPANSA……,,,  https://www.arpansa.gov.au/arpansa-approves-siting-licence-asa-controlled-industrial-facility?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1xXw4CRdQCPOLg3sp1MqQAl-RCQHby8KJjOf_X_BXL3OxmKyMmq2nH9Xw_aem_gN1-iDIpedU70PUZyyEqJQ&sfnsn=mo

July 17, 2024 Posted by | wastes | Leave a comment

TODAY. More American media madness

Once again, I’m at risk of sounding callous about that shooting of Donald Trump. Of course it was nasty, frightening and wrong. And deserves media coverage.

Yes, it was big stuff, and doesn’t the media love it! Especially in the USA. Was it a lone attacker? Was he sent by Joe Biden? Was it the CIA? Was it organised by  elite satanic paedophiles? Was it an elaborate “friendly fire” organised by the Republicans?

America being the crazy place that it is, the gun lobby will no doubt use it as an argument for having more people with guns around at such a function – as they argued for teachers armed in the classroom. (I always thought that was a dangerous one – teachers can get so cross with some kids!)

But meanwhile, other important stuff is not getting noticed in the “mainstream” media.

Like for example, the continued atrocities in Gaza. Bombing of tent communities. Bombing of schools.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dvMPDAUb_Hk%3Fsi%3DQbbITNNgFXduzduh

Like for example – that the Democratic party has no plans to alter its policy of unconditional arms support for Israel. Meanwhile Biden mouths pious motherhood statements regretting the suffering of the Gazan people.

Like for example – the belligerent  Washington Summit Declaration containing, among other things -“Investing in our Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear defence capabilities”. But the USA and European both support the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention. What happened to that?

Like for example – Unconditional support for Ukraine’s victory over Russia at a time and on terms set by Ukraine and its allies, not by Russia (no negotiation) And approval for F-16s to attack inside Russian territory.  And  Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to NATO Membership.

Sadly, the corporate media is becoming irrelevant to the important things going on in the world.

It really matters little whether the Republicans or the Democrats get in at the next USA election. Both are controlled by wealthy corporations, especially weapons makers. The Biden administration will torpedoe us to World War 3. Trump will destroy all democratic institutions, and create a global zeitgeist of fear and distrust, also leading to World War 3.

Do Americans have the brains to vote for somebody other than those two useless parties?

July 17, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dutton’s nuclear ‘frolic’ a recipe for higher bills and blackout risk: Bowen


ByMike Foley July 16, 2024 — https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-s-nuclear-frolic-a-recipe-for-higher-bills-and-blackout-risk-bowen-20240716-p5jtz8.html

Energy Minister Chris Bowen will declare the next election is a make-or-break moment for clean energy, claiming the opposition’s “ideological pursuit” of nuclear power would cripple the renewables rollout.

In his first major speech since the opposition last month revealed details of its pledge to build nuclear reactors, Bowen will say Australians can choose “reliable renewables or risky reactors – but not both”.

He will argue the money flowing into clean energy projects under Labor’s goal to boost renewables from 40 to 82 per cent of the electricity grid by 2030 would dry up under a Coalition government.

“All these investments and many more like them are at risk because of the policy uncertainty caused by an ill-informed nuclear frolic,” Bowen will say, according to a draft of a speech he will give to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

The opposition has said that its first nuclear reactor would not be built until at least 2035, with experts saying it could take until at least the mid-2040s.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and some Liberal MPs have said a Coalition government would encourage continued investment in renewables without specifying what proportion they want to see in the grid.

However, senior Nationals, including leader David Littleproud, have said the nuclear policy would facilitate a reduction in renewable energy.

The grid operator has said the cheapest way to expand the grid and switch from ageing coal-fired power stations is to secure private investment in renewables.

Bowen will claim the opposition’s nuclear plan would spook international investors and renewable project spending would falter if the Coalition were elected.

“Their ideological pursuit of nuclear reactors in two decades’ time would wreck the renewables rollout now,” he said.

“When David Littleproud says we need to ‘sweat the coal assets for longer’, he is describing a recipe for reliability ruin.

“In the context I’ve outlined of ageing and unreliable coal-fired power stations, we can only imagine what that would do for affordability and reliability.”

Bowen’s renewables target is key to Labor’s pledge to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and reduce household power bills by $275 by 2025.

But these goals have been jeopardised by community opposition to wind and solar farms and delays to crucial transmission lines.

Experts warn the delays could add hundreds of dollars to power bills, but Bowen is adamant his aims are achievable.

He will challenge the Coalition to detail how it would incorporate nuclear plants into the increasingly renewables-dominated grid, given reactors are intended to run continuously rather than be ramped up and down in response to demand.

“In Australia, nuclear and renewables are simply incompatible,” Bowen will say.

“Is the Coalition’s plan to curtail zero-cost renewable energy to make room for expensive nuclear energy … or is their plan to bankroll these baseload plants to bid into the system at prices where they’ll bleed money? Either one is a recipe for Australians to pay much more.”

July 17, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Australian nuclear news headlines – week to 22 July

Headlines as they come in:




July 17, 2024 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Nuclear too slow to replace coal, and baseload “simply can’t compete” with wind and solar, AEMO boss says

Giles Parkinson, Jul 16, 2024,  https://reneweconomy.com.au/nuclear-too-slow-to-replace-coal-and-baseload-simply-cant-compete-with-wind-and-solar-aemo-boss-says/

The head of the Australian Energy Market Operator, Daniel Westerman, has rejected nuclear power as an option to replace Australia’s ageing coal fleet, saying it is too slow and expensive, and that baseload power sources in any case won’t be able to compete in a grid dominated by wind and solar.

The comments by Westerman at the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney on Tuesday, come as the federal Coalition intensifies its push for nuclear power, outlining plans to build nuclear facilities at seven current and former coal generation sites across the country.

Westerman says the updated roadmap released by AEMO last month, known as the 2024 Integrated System Plan, does not consider nuclear because it remains outlawed in Australia and is not part of any government policy package. But he said it was clear from AEMO’s work with CSIRO in the GenCost report that nuclear was expensive, and too slow.

“To be clear, AEMO does not form the view that one form of energy is ‘good’ and another ‘bad’,” Westerman said.

“Our engineers and economists are focused on finding the least-cost path to reliable and affordable energy for Australian consumers.

“Even on the most optimistic outlook, nuclear power won’t be ready in time for the exit of Australia’s coal-fired power stations. And the imperative to replace that retiring coal generation is with us now.

“In fact, the old notion of “baseload” generation which runs constantly, then supplemented with “peaking generation” for the daily peaks in demand, simply does not reflect the way our power system works today, or into the future.

“When the sun is shining and wind is blowing, renewable generation produces energy at zero marginal cost, and “baseload” energy simply can’t compete. It is either pushed out of the market entirely, or has to sell its energy at a loss if it can’t flex up and down to absorb the peaks and troughs of variable renewable supply.

Westerman’s comments were echoed by Damien Nicks, the CEO of AGL Energy which is the country’s biggest producer of coal power, all of which will close by 2035.

“We haven’t got time to wait,” Nicks said. We need to build 12 GW of both firming and renewables over that period of time and we have to get on with it. Nuclear is not part of our strategy.”

Rob Wheals, the former head of gas company APA who now heads iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest’s renewable investor Squadron Energy, agreed. “Nuclear does not actually solve the problem(of impending coal closures) …. we’ve got to get on with the job of building and rebuilding Australia’s energy system.”

The AEMO ISP outlines plans to deal with the expected retirement of all of Australia’s coal fleet over the next 10 to 15 years, and the costs involved to build new wind, solar and storage, as well as transmission lines – which AEMO puts at $122 billion.

That figure – along with the conclusions from the GenCost report – have been repeatedly attacked by the federal Coalition, right wing “think tanks” and mainstream media outlets. They claim that the ISP ignores costs such as networks, and consumer energy resources, which will be one of the major components of the transition.

Westerman rejected this. “It does not include the cost of distribution networks whose plans are made at a local level…and it does not include the cost of consumer devices like rooftop solar systems, because those investment decisions are made by consumers themselves,” he said.

The ISP maps out a dramatic transition in Australia’s main electricity grid, from around 60 gigawatts (GW) now, including 20 GW of rooftop solar, to more than 300 GW and more than 86 GW of rooftop solar, with demand doubling as a result of economic growth and electrification in homes, industry and transport.

This will require 60 GW of large scale wind (up from 12 GW now), 58 GW of large scale solar (up from 10 GW), and 44 GW of battery storage capacity.

It will also need 15 GW of gas capacity, up from 11.5 GW now, but that meant that around 13 GW of new capacity would be needed as much of existing capacity is ageing and will need to be replaced.

He said gas will not be used much – maybe just 5 per cent of the time – but it will be important to meet demand peaks, and also to fill gaps in so-called “dunkelflaute” the German word for extended wind and solar droughts which may be apparent in states like Victoria, particularly in winter.

One of the biggest challenges remains the management of consumer energy resources, particularly rooftop solar, which are largely uncontrolled. This meant that protocols had to be introduced to protect “minimum load” levels which would enable AEMO to remain control of the grid and keep the lights on.

Westerman said the overall pace of investment needs to increase, and the connections process – cited by investors as one of the biggest causes of project delays – also needs to be streamlined.

He said the capacity of new generation and storage projects in various stages of the connection process in the National Electricity Market had grown to close to 43 GW from 30 GW a year ago.

AEMO is also working on the engineering requirements to accommodate periods of 100 per cent renewables on the main grid. Already new milestones had been reached, including renewables reaching more than 70 per cent of NEM demand, rooftop solar alone providing 50 per cent of the NEM, and more than 100 per cent in South Australia.

He noted that South Australia, which leads the country and the world with a 70 per cent renewable share – wind and solar – over the past year, had also met more than 90 per cent of its supply with wind and solar, mostly rooftop PV, even when the state grid was electrically separated from the rest of the NEM as a result of a storm last year.

“Australia is leading the world in proving how to reliably source the majority of electricity for a developed economy from the wind and the sun.

July 17, 2024 Posted by | energy, politics | Leave a comment

China is installing the wind and solar equivalent of five large nuclear power stations per week

Instead of nuclear, solar is now intended to be the foundation of China’s new electricity generation system.

Who is going to be the economic winner in that global economic transition? It’s going to be China.”

energy experts are frustrated with the progress of Australia’s transition, including the discussion of nuclear power and the “weaponisation of dissent” from community groups over new wind farms and transmission lines.

ABC Science / By technology reporter James Purtill, 16 July 24,  https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-07-16/chinas-renewable-energy-boom-breaks-records/104086640

In short:

China is installing record amounts of solar and wind, while scaling back once-ambitious plans for nuclear.

While Australia is falling behind its renewables installation targets, China may meet its end-of-2030 target by the end of this month, according to a report.

What’s next?

Energy experts are looking to China, the world’s largest emitter and once a climate villain, for lessons on how to rapidly decarbonise.

While Australia debates the merits of going nuclear and frustration grows over the slower-than-needed rollout of solar and wind power, China is going all in on renewables.

New figures show the pace of its clean energy transition is roughly the equivalent of installing five large-scale nuclear power plants worth of renewables every week.

A report by Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said China was installing renewables so rapidly it would meet its end-of-2030 target by the end of this month — or 6.5 years early. 

It’s installing at least 10 gigawatts of wind and solar generation capacity every fortnight.

By comparison, experts have said the Coalition’s plan to build seven nuclear power plants would add fewer than 10GW of generation capacity to the grid some time after 2035. 

Energy experts are looking to China, the world’s largest emitter, once seen as a climate villain, for lessons on how to go green, fast.

“We’ve seen America under President Biden throw a trillion dollars on the table [for clean energy],” CEF director Tim Buckley said.

“China’s response to that has been to double down and go twice as fast.”

Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes, who recently returned from a Shanghai energy conference, said China has decarbonised its grid almost as quickly as Australia, despite having a much harder task due to the scale of its energy demand.

“They have clear targets and every part of their government is harnessed to deliver the plan,” he said.

China accounts for about a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. A recent drop in emissions (the first since relaxing COVID-19 restrictions), combined with the decarbonisation of the power grid, may mean the country’s emissions have peaked.

“With the power sector going green, emissions are set to plateau and then progressively fall towards 2030 and beyond,” CEF China energy policy analyst Xuyang Dong said.

So how is China building and connecting panels so fast, and what’s the role of nuclear in its transition?

Like building solar farms near Perth to power Sydney

Because its large cities of the eastern seaboard are dominated by apartment buildings, China hasn’t seen an uptake of rooftop solar like in Australia.

To find space for all the solar panels and wind turbines required for the nation’s energy needs, the planners of China’s energy transition have looked west, to areas like the Gobi Desert.

The world’s largest solar and wind farms are being built on the western edge of the country and connected to the east via the world’s longest high-voltage transmission lines.

These lines are so long they could span the length of our continent.

In Australian terms, it’s the equivalent of using solar panels near Perth to power homes in Sydney.

Mr Buckley said China’s approach was similar to the Australian one of developing regional “renewable energy zones” for large-scale electricity generation.

“They’re doing what Australia is doing with renewable energy zones but they’re doing it on steroids,” he said.

What about ‘firming’ the grid?

One of the issues with switching a grid to intermittent renewables is ensuring a steady supply of power.

In technical terms, this is the difference between generation capacity (measured in gigawatts) and actual energy output (measured in gigawatt-hours, or generation over time).

Renewables have a “capacity factor” (the ratio of actual output to maximum potential generation) of about 25 per cent, whereas nuclear’s is as high as 90 per cent.

So although China is installing solar and wind generation equivalent to five large nuclear power plants per week, their output is closer to one nuclear plant per week.

Renewables account for more than half of installed capacity in China, but only amount to about one-fifth of actual energy output over a year, the CEF’s Tim Buckley said.

To “firm” or stabilise the supply of power from its renewable energy zones, China is using a mix of pumped hydro and battery storage, similar to Australia. 

“They’re installing 1GW per month of pumped hydro storage,” Mr Buckley said.

“We’re struggling to build the 2GW Snowy 2.0 in 10 years.”

There are some major differences between Australia and China’s approaches, though.  Somewhat counterintuitively, China has built dozens of coal-fired power stations alongside its renewable energy zones, to maintain the pace of its clean energy transition.

China was responsible for 95 per cent of the world’s new coal power construction activity last year. 

The new plants are partly needed to meet demand for electricity, which has gone up as more energy-hungry sectors of the economy, like transport, are electrified.

The coal-fired plants are also being used, like the batteries and pumped hydro, to provide a stable supply of power down the transmission lines from renewable energy zones, balancing out the intermittent solar and wind.

Despite these new coal plants, coal’s share of total electricity generation in the country is falling. 

The China Energy Council estimated renewables generation would overtake coal by the end of this year.

The CEF’s Xuyang Dong said despite the country’s reliance on coal, “having China go green at this speed and scale provides the world with a textbook to do the same”.

“China is installing every week the equivalent of what we’re doing every year.”

Despite this speed, China wasn’t installing renewables fast enough to meet its 2060 carbon neutrality target, she added.

“According to our analysis, [the current rate of installation] is not ambitious enough for China.”

What about nuclear?

China is building new nuclear plants, although nowhere near as fast as it once intended.

In 2011, Chinese authorities announced fission reactors would become the foundation of the country’s electricity generation system in the next “10 to 20 years”.

But Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster prompted a moratorium on inland nuclear plants, which have to use river water for cooling and are more vulnerable to frequent flooding.

Meanwhile, over the following decade, solar became the cheapest electricity in the world. 

From 2010 to 2020, the installed cost of utility-scale solar PV declined by 81 per cent on a global average basis.

As well as cheap, it was safe, which made solar farms quicker to build than nuclear reactors.

Instead of nuclear, solar is now intended to be the foundation of China’s new electricity generation system.
Authorities have steadily downgraded plans for nuclear to dominate China’s energy generation. At present, the goal is 18 per cent of generation by 2060.

China installed 1GW of nuclear last year, compared to 300GW of solar and wind, Mr Buckley said.

“That says they’re all in on renewables.

“They had grand plans for nuclear to be massive but they’re behind on nuclear by a decade and five years ahead of schedule on solar and wind.”

How is China transitioning so fast?

In June of this year, on the eve of the Coalition’s nuclear policy announcement, former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who’s now a Smart Energy Council “international ambassador”, led a delegation of Australians to the world’s largest clean energy conference in Shanghai.

The annual Smart Energy Conference hosts more than 600,000 delegates across three days.

Its scale underlines China’s increasing dominance of the global clean energy economy and, for some attendees, prompted unenviable comparisons with Australia’s progress.

Mr Buckley, who was part of the delegation, said he was “blown away”.

“China is winning this race.”

John Grimes, the Smart Energy Council CEO who also attended, said Australia could learn from the Chinese government’s ability to execute a long-term, difficult and costly transition plan, rather than relying on market forces to find a solution.

“Australia’s transition is going too slow, there was a lost decade of action,” he said.

“The world today spends about $7 trillion a year on coal, gas and oil and that money is going to find a new home.

Who is going to be the economic winner in that global economic transition? It’s going to be China.”

He and other energy experts are frustrated with the progress of Australia’s transition, including the discussion of nuclear power and the “weaponisation of dissent” from community groups over new wind farms and transmission lines.

Stephanie Bashir, CEO of the Nexa energy advisory, said Australia’s transition was tangled in red tape.

“The key hold-up for a lot of projects is the slow planning approvals,” Ms Bashir, who also attended the conference, said.

“In China they decide they’re going to do something and then they go and do it.”

The Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) plan to decarbonise the grid and ensure the lights stay on when the coal-fired power stations close requires thousands of kilometres of new transmission lines and large-scale solar and wind farms.

Australia is installing about half the amount of renewables per year required under the plan.

Due to this shortfall, many experts say its unlikely to meet its 2030 target of 82 per cent renewables in the grid and 43 per cent emissions reduction.

“We need to build 6GW each year from now until each power station closes, and so far we’re only bringing online 3GW,” Ms Bashir said.

“If we identify some projects are nation-building … and we need them for transition, we just have to get on with it.”

Mr Buckley predicted China would accelerate its deployment of renewables.

“My forecast is it will lift 20 per cent per annum on current levels.”

July 17, 2024 Posted by | energy | Leave a comment