Post newspaper readers may have seen the recent dialogue between Nuclear proponents and myself. The sales manger of a local Uranium mining company has joined in as well, though he didn't disclose his interest. At least I have got someones attention. Anyway, here is my reply of 12/6/10 -
Editor:
If Mr Linke finds what I say hard to accept, he might like to listen to ( or read the transcript of ) ABC Radio's, "Ockham's razor" 29th May, by Adam Lucas, a science lecturer at Wollongong Uni. which confirms many of the points I made.
What it really boils down to, is "time and money". Reducing our emissions within 5 -10 years is crucial. Some reactors currently being built have been in construction for 20 years. They take a further 8 -10 years to offset their emissions footprints. Most of the emissions occur before any generation. It just doesn't add up.
Waste disposal is not solved. Water use is colossal, one reactor can use more water than greater Sydney. Nuclear power is heavily subsidised and uninsurable. The UK estimates it will cost 75 billion pounds to decommission it's reactors.
Australia uses about 40 GW of electricity, equivalent to 25 and 40 nuclear power stations. which would cost over $ 250 billion dollars. Solar thermal power stations and wind farms can be built in 2 -3 years. Energy efficiency, or "negawatts"( the energy we don't have to produce ) is by far the cheapest and quickest way to reduce emissions. And it actually saves us money.
Nuclear is not 100% reliable, not even close. Each Reactor shut-downs on average every 2 years. More concerning is that during the 2003 heatwave, many French reactors had to shut down because of a lack of cooling water, just when they were needed most.
Nuclear is not "emissions free", at 65 g/KWh it is less than fossil fuels, but uranium is finite, this rises rapidly as increasingly lower grade ores are mined.
The health consequences of uranium mining are well documented. Ionising radiation causes cancer. This is not disputed. Radioactive Radon gas is released from mining and milling Uranium ore. Navajo Indians and European miners are two groups who paid a very high price to prove this fact. Worldwide, Radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking.
Follow up studies of the workers at Radium Hill in South Australia showed increased rates of lung cancer, but the studies stopped and equally surprising, no register of Uranium miners has been kept in Australia. Avoidance of this occupational problem seems more than careless.
As Mr Linke insists on examples of "base-load power": the Andasol solar thermal power station with storage, opened in March 09, and can produce full power for 7.5 hours after dark. The Geysers 750MW geothermal power station in California. Brazil provides 18% of it's electricity from biomass. Hydro and biogas also provide base-load as well as being versatile.
Nuclear reactors are complex, expensive, sometimes dangerous devices to boil water, to drive steam turbines. The question is; why bother, when there are quicker, cheaper and more effective ways to generate power ?
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