Posted by: sustainadelic
on 23 Mar, 2011
Noted UK environmentalist George Monbiot says in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima that the Fukushima nuclear incident has persuaded him nuclear power is safe. If a 40-year-old nuclear plant with shoddy maintenance can survice a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami without a major release of radioactivity, we should worry less about nuclear power.
Posted by: sustainadelic
on 03 Dec, 2010
I notice some in the Australian Labor Party are trying to stir up debate on nuclear power. The main argument of those spruiking nuclear is that the clean energy alternative - renewables - simply can't meet our energy needs.
Posted by: sustainadelic
on 12 Nov, 2009
The UK has announced an energy policy featuring 10 new sites for nuclear power stations, investment in clean coal (with a promise of no new coal-fired power stations without clean coal) and 30 per cent renewables (mainly wind) by 2020. The UK plans to generate 40 per cent of its energy from nuclear power by 2025.
Posted by:
on 23 Jul, 2009
Federal Opposition energy spokesman Ian Macfarlane today called for Australia to adopt nuclear power. Is he right?
Posted by: sustainadelic
on 15 Jun, 2009
I'd call myself anti-nuclear. I worry about accidents such as Chernobyl, about
terrorists getting hold of enriched uranium, about storing radioactive waste for thousands of years, about governments that can't be trusted not to build bombs.
But I see Adelaide University climate professor
Barry Brook wrote in The Australian last week and on
his blog yesterday while about a new type of "fourth generation nuclear reactor" called Integral Fast Reactors (IFRs) that advocates claim overcome these problems. In fact they actually use existing nuclear waste, neatly solving the waste problem. See also this article by
Geoffrey Russell on ABC Unleashed (and note the interesting line about why IFRs were not mentioned in the Switkowski Report). There's
lots more on the IFR here.
The catch? Like "clean coal", IFRs don't actually exist yet.
Unlike clean coal, however, some big climate change names are saying it should be taken serious. They include NASA's climate guru
James Hansen, Earth Institute's Jeffrey Sachs and UK author Mark Lynas.
Most of these men previously opposed nuclear power.
Another new development being touted is mini-reactors. Toshiba says it is building one and a US startup company called Hyperion claims to have more than 100 firm orders for a
mini-nuclear power station smaller than a garden shed - and apparently so safe that even students can use it.
Not everyone agrees.
Read Amory Lovins here or
Mark Brown here.
Posted by:
on 22 May, 2009
This should scare you. With thousands of kilograms of weapons-grade nuclear material from the cold war still in power stations and universities around the world, and groups such as al-Qaida keen to get hold of it, the agency charged with preventing that happening has an annual US budget of $150m, roughly what the US military spends in eight hours in Iraq.
Posted by:
on 26 Feb, 2009
A French and British nuclear submarines collided recently, prompting this excellent piece by Gwynne Dyer, author of the excellent Climate Wars) on the mindless stupidity of maintaining these totally pointless nuclear arsenals.
Posted by:
on 26 Feb, 2009
UK environmental activist and columnist George Monbiot has come out with provisional support for nuclear power. This is a surprise, given Monbiot's previous opposition to nuclear power. However, the piece is worth reading, as are the comments - one of the less hysterical debates about nuclear power.
Posted by:
on 11 Nov, 2008
At last... your very own backgarden nuclear power station. For just US$25million (cheap for a nuclear power station) you can have your very own shed-sized Chernobyl underneath the Hills hoist.
Posted by:
on 12 Aug, 2008
Interesting comment in the latest George Monbiot article in the Guardian...
