Yet when Dutton and his colleagues stood up before the media yesterday, they outlined a policy with many questions unanswered — including, most crucially, the actual cost of their nuclear rollout. The Coalition says it will reveal the cost down the track. But to leave unanswered such a crucial detail when the entire debate is centred around the cost of energy leaves the policy vulnerable and impossible to critically assess.
- Patricia Karvelas, ABC News, 20th Jun 2024
When an 18 year old schoolboy became the face of a push for nuclear power in Australia, my immediate suspicion was that there was something suspiciously suspicious about this. When Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton, made an announcement that it will be Liberal Party policy to have seven nuclear reactors in Australia by 2035, my immediate suspicion was that not only there was something suspiciously suspicious about this but that his benefactors like Gina Rinehart must probably own a uranium mine. When the Minerals Council of Australia also came out in favour of have seven nuclear reactors in Australia by 2035, my immediate suspicion was immediately quashed because I know know that there is nothing suspicious about this and that this is just pure raw naked business speaking.
However, the entirety of the 'debate' being pushed by the Liberal Party and their handlers at Sky News, is almost entirely a disinformation campaign which runs on nonsenseleum. Nonsenseleum is apparently a renewable resource as Sky News seems to be able to mine virtually limitless quantities of the stuff.
Therefore, in true Socratic fashion, let us ask: 'What is Nuclear?'
In the most basic terms, the world has not progressed much beyond the steam age. A steam engine works by setting a thing on fire, usually rocks, and then using that fire to boil water to turn it into steam, which we then ask to do work. A coal fired power station works by setting a thing on fire, which are rocks called coal, and then using that fire to boil water to turn it into steam, which we then ask to do work by spinning turbines which we can then use to make electric. A nuclear power station works by having spicy rocks which are always on fire, which are radioactive rocks called uranium and plutonium, and then using that nuclear fire to boil water to turn it into steam, which we then ask to do work by spinning turbines which we can then use to make electric.
However, as fun as nuclear power is, there are a lot of things that the nuff-nuffs in the Liberal Party have either missed or are deliberately not telling you.
Firstly, despite what the Minerals Council of Australia wants to tell you, nuclear power is NOT renewable. Just like anything else which is in the ground, there is only a limited amount of stuff which is readily accessible. The spicy rocks in a nuclear reactor come from various uranium oxides; which are actually a finite resource. They will run out at some point.
Secondly, as steam engines, coal power stations, and nuclear power stations, are all basically kettles with spinny things attached; which we then use to make electric or do work with, then they need water to put in the kettle. The problem is that nuclear power stations need a lot of water. Therefore nuclear power stations must be located near large bodies of water. This poses a problem. Perhaps someone at the Liberal Party, maybe even cosplay cowboy Senator Matt Canavan could tell the city boys, Australia is an arid country. This means that water resources are limited. I know that if you are Barnaby Joyce that you can sell 80 Megalitres of water for a cheeseburger and a box of goon, but for everyone else who lives in the country, the fact that we do not have lots of water everywhere in Australia is a very real reality which makes itself known to be a very real reality, quite a lot of the time.
Thirdly, although there are such things as molten salt reactors which will sort of self-shutdown when they stop being molten, salty sea water is not generally compatible with nuclear reactors. The Fukushima Nuclear Reactor which went into meltdown and then shutdown, shut down because all the salty sea water from the sea got in there. That's really handy if you want to stop a nuclear reactor from reacting and stop making electric but most of the time, you do want it reacting and making electric. That means putting a nuclear in Australia not near the sea; which is easy because Australia is big but bad because Australia doesn't have other water where there is no sea.
Fourthly, the thing about building nuclear reactors is that they are very expensive to build. This is not necessarily a problem if you are just starting out building a whole country because you have just been bombed to the nines in a great world war (or bonus round in a second world war), but if you are not, then being expensive is bad. It is worse if you are a country starting from scratch. Not many people have that kind of money and private investors are unlikely to stump up the capital. This means that generally speaking, nuclear power plants rely heavily on government subsidies; which is bad if you are the Liberal Party and you have just spent 80 years trying to convince everyone that government shouldn't own anything ever, because communism will eat your babies and turn the white people into mutants or something.
Fifthly and speaking of turning babies into mutants or something, where do you put the spicy rocks once you are finished with them? The spicy rocks in a nuclear power station do not stay that particular kind of special spiciness forever and need to be put into a bin. We do not currently have a good enough bin for the storage of radioactive waste. Australia does currently produces low-level waste when it makes nuclear medicines (one of the ironies being that you can cure some radiation with other different radiation) but there's not a lot of the stuff. Australia's only real nuclear medicine nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, currently does store nuclear waste at its own facility but as with every temporary measure, every temporary measure is always effectively permanent until a more permanent facility is completed.
Sixthly, and related to fourthly, if private capital is not capable of stumping up the cash to build seven nuclear power stations, then government capital must be used. This is fine if they were to remain in government hands but given that the only Liberal Party policy which has been permanent is to sell every single thing in government hands that they possibly can to their criminal friends, then we must assume that the seven nuclear power stations including the ability to generate nuclear weapons absolutely will end up in private hands at some point. Why should we trust the character of people whom we do not yet know?
Seventhly, where exactly would Australia store nuclear waste from 6 or 7 reactors? It's bad enough trying to convince the NIMBYs to put houses for people, from whom they might accidentally catch poverty from, in their backyard. Who wants nuclear waste from 6 or 7 nuclear reactors in their backyard? No-one.
Eighthly, although the spicy rocks do not stay that particular kind of special spiciness forever and need to be put into a bin, they still remain dangerous to human health for thousands of years. Australia can not just bury those spicy rocks in the ground because of a thing called the Great Artesian Basin. It is Great, which means that it is big. It is Artesian, which means that there is water under the ground from which most of the people not on the edge of Australia get their water from. It is a basin, which means that it is a big thing of water. Burying those spicy rocks under the ground in Australia, means that we would be poisoning the water supply for a very long time. When I poison the water supply; now everybody dead, then oops.
Ninthly, although the spicy rocks do not go boom and send spiciness everywhere most of the time, most of the time is still not all of the time. Events like Three Mile Island, or Chernobyl, or Fukushima, do not need to happen very often for the consequences to have very very long tails. If events like the disaster at Bhopal didn't involve spicy rocks and still are having consequences 40 years later, then a disaster which does involve spicy rocks will last longer. Also related is the fact that there are nefarious and nasty people in the world, who might want to make your spicy rocks go boom and send spiciness everywhere. I do not know what a directed terrorist attack on a nuclear power station would look like but I do know that you can't hide or move one very quickly.
Tenthly, as it stands nuclear power stations supply about 11% of the world’s electric. Given that we are running out of other fossil fuel sources, that will put demands on Australia's uranium resources very quickly; an as nuclear energy is nominally about can be up to six times more expensive than renewable energy sources, this seems like the timeframe of 2035 is in fact too late to make any kind of discernable difference to get ahead of the future building costs.
Eleventhly, although the Liberal Party doesn't accept that climate change is a thing, insurance companies already think that current Liberal Party policy is complete junk. I tend to believe insurance companies who have a vested interest in spinning a profit due to contingent risks, than cosplay cowboys who can only see as far as the 2025 election. The awful truth is that due to the increasing impact of climate change which is in fact happening now, this means that rapid transition is needed. Even if we accept the Liberal Party's timeline, this means that the seven nuclear power stations are due to be completed in about 11 years' time. Development of renewable energy sources is happening now. The reason why the Liberal Party doesn't like renewable energy goes all the way back to the question at the beginning of this piece "does Gina own a uranium mine?" If the answer is "yes", which it is, then any and all sensible renewable energy policy must be destroyed immediately and forever.
As jack of no trade and master of no trade, and just an accountant which means that I have applied OCD to tell you what is wrong with your stupid proposal, when I can write a piece with the word 'eleventhly' in it, then it is really really really really... stupid. Don't let an 18 year old be the spokesperson for your campaign because you look like a dill. Don't let Peter Dutton be the spokesperson for your campaign because you look like a dill. Look, just don't do it. It's dangerous. Stay Safe.
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