An ignoramus’s guide to nuclear energy

I know as much as the average Arts graduate who studied Latin…

But the High Priest of NO — sorry, the esteemed Leader of the Opposition — has gone in boots and all and banged his bald pate against the whole idea of Labor and its renewable energy preference. Because he sees votes in it of course, his knowledge being hardly superior to mine, I dare say. Everyone has an ideological kite to fly or drum to bang, and I speak there not only of Dutton, Littleproud, Uncle Tom Cobley and all, but also of the no-nukes-never-never-no-more mob as well..

I grew up in the only part of Australia that already has a nuclear reactor, The Shire, and we were bloody proud of it. Through my Dad and his Progress Association connections I even met the big boss in my youth, Watson-Munro I believe. And visited it.

I reflected on that in another context last year: Today’s adventure and an odd but interesting by-product on FB.

In Wollongong Hospital

Thanks, ANSTO and The Shire for the necessary radioactive isotopes. Oh, there is another minefield here:

I happen to have very strong views on such matters as the Settlement Policy in Israel and I have no great love for the current Israeli government’s policies in that area and quite a few others. You may search this blog to see what I have said about such things.

I also am amazed by this life-saving machine.

I am very glad that Wollongong Hospital has one.

This would still be true if the machine was Chinese or Russian.

See? A minefield if ever there was one — and please don’t bother! You are welcome to your thoughts on the matter.

Not that you would know from that, but the marvellous machine was made in Israel….

Now we have a ding-dong political battle on the future of energy.

My cousin Ray Christison lives in Lithgow and has for around four decades made his money one way or another from the coal industry his town is famous for, in latter years as an eminent industrial archaeologist and heritage consultant. Commenting on the news that Lithgow Council has said NO to nuclear power, Ray said:

“The Federal Coalition seems intent on pulling Australia back into the 1950s. No ideas, no sense.”

The water issue definitely concerns me…

And Dutton and the Seven Sites has already brought forth memes referencing —

And we do have the interesting conundrum of a government pushing like crazy the need for nuclear submarines and an industry to support them while steadfastly opposing nuclear energy as part of the energy generation mix in Australia. On one aspect of that I posted last year Of course war is bad and of course there are better things to spend money on… On the other hand I have never been dogmatically opposed in theory to the idea of nuclear energy being used to generate power without adding to the sum of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is used after all in very many countries, mostly without bad consequences in the short term. But when something does go wrong…. Not to mention the issue of what to do with spent fuel. Even our little reactor in The Shire has a problem there.

See Why has the Coalition gone nuclear? The facts you need to navigate the energy debate

That is on our ABC. It is as good as anything I have seen so far. I commented on Facebook:

Honestly I think it a great shame that this very serious matter has become political and polarised in the very worst way. But Dutton very early on announced he intended to play tackle, not touch. Let’s just say he is not the greatest thinker in the world, but does enjoy a bit of biff and always has.

Sad for us all though, especially if the ideal outcome is not a matter of all versus none!

I stand by that, but forced to choose I will definitely throw my support behind the renewables path. Search my blog for “climate change” and you will see why.