One of the early drivers promoting renewable energy (in the 1970's) was the need to find a rational response to the nuclear future proposition for Australia. Thirty seven odd years later photovoltaics (PV) have not just come of age they are about to superseded by even more exciting, safe, renewable technologies.
So it was a bit of a surprise to see the South Australian Government call a Royal Commission into nuclear power. But as Senator Scott Ludlum writes in New Matilda (26/2/15):
"The debate about nuclear power in South Australia needs to be had, if only to put the issue to bed once and for all ....
"It will paint a picture of an industry in terminal decline; a uranium market in a state of chronic oversupply; 60 years of high-level nuclear waste still awaiting a coherent management solution; ongoing contamination hazards at destroyed reactor sites; unresolved weapons proliferation risks from ‘civilian’ enrichment facilities in Iran; a stalled disarmament agenda and a handful of countries persevering with new plants plagued by cost overruns and safety fears. ...
"If the Royal Commission is prepared to build future projections on past performance, it will discover a domestic uranium sector that is leaving tens of millions of tonnes of carcinogenic wastes for future populations to deal with, and a sorry history of community division and dispossession. ... the case for nuclear playing a major role in the transition to a low carbon economy is shot to pieces on arguments of cost, risk, timing, competition and scale. ...
"An inquiry into how to get to zero emissions electricity as cheaply and rapidly as possible would have made a far more timely and valuable contribution to debates over energy policy and rebooting South Australia’s manufacturing sector than another rake through the slowly cooling ashes of the nuclear dream. Nonetheless, the lid has been lifted once again, and we can only hope that the Royal Commissioner is willing to take an unblinking look at the evidence, so that the failed hopes and broken promises of the atomic age can be set to rest once and for all."
Read the full article at: https://newmatilda.com/2015/02/26/nuclear-industry-trial-scott-ludlam-ho...
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