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Nuclear power explained in 12 numbers to help you understand how it fits Australia’s energy needs (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As the shift away from fossil fuels gathers pace, the Coalition has turned to an emissions-free technology with a long and contentious history — nuclear fission. These are the numbers you should keep in mind when thinking about its place in Australia’s energy transition.

I encourage you to at least glance through the article before you leave a comment that other commenters will dunk on you for.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (8 children)

I think those quotes at the bottom are a really great summary of the problem with the Coalition's nuclear plan:

“As I said, from an engineering point of view nuclear power is an excellent form of energy,” Dr Finkel said.

“What we can’t do is say, ‘Oh, nuclear is easy, therefore let’s stop all the wind and jump on to nuclear.’

“It just can’t possibly happen in the time-frame that we need. But that doesn’t mean we should rule it out because there’s that long term benefit.”

I could see the merits of beginning to invest in nuclear now, given the time required to get it up and running, but only so long as the shift to renewables isn't interrupted. Unfortunately, I think the LNP see this as a way to seem like they give a shit about climate change, but really it's just a way to buy them another decade or two to line their pockets with coal.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Are there merits to investing in nuclear now?

A nuclear plant would take the best part of 20 years to build and has at least a 40 year lifespan. It'd be competing not against today's solar and batteries but against 2040's solar and batteries on day one. And it'd need to be profitable until 2070.

It would have been great to have invested in nuclear in the 80s, but we didn't. Like hydrogen cars, it could have been great but we've moved past it already.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Nuclear is difficult in Australia because of our low population. I agree it would have been nice to have some 40 year old reactors now (Lucas Heights doesn't count as it isn't a power reactor) but we don't because we don't and didn't have the population to support enough reactors for maintenance of one to not cripple the grid until small reactors were invented recently

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