Articles 
PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT
THE ENERGY POLICY FROM LAH LAH LAND
PIGS CAN FLY, EARTH IS FLAT, NUCLEAR POWER IS SAFE, RELIABLE, AND CHEAP (and wont go over schedule or over budget)
Peter Dutton has unveiled a nuclear – power dependent energy policy that reveals more about his own ideological biases than it does about the realities of either nuclear power, or sustainable/renewable energy options.
That nuclear power plants commonly – indeed, mostly – go way over budget, and way over schedule, either by years or even by decades, and that this is due in part to their inherent complexity and in part to the safety problems embedded in the very nature of the technology – has been known for decades.
Study after study has shown nuclear plants having to be rebuilt part way through the construction process, having to have major components re-installed, and thus leading to vast extensions in schedule, (Often by as much as 15 years), and to cost blowouts in same cases by as much as ten times the initial, inevitably overoptimistic cost estimates.
While these phenomena are by no means limited to nuclear power plants, (submarines are a case in point for Australia), nuclear power has by now a reputation for being a risky and unreliable investment.
Nuclear power plants are also notorious for failure to perform as advertised. While plants vary from country to country and from technology type to technology type, there is not a reactor type that has not had operational and safety problems that have led to prolonged shutdowns.
A review of the literature on nuclear plants – had Dutton bothered to do it – would have shown him that the 'Small modular reactor', pushed as a safe reliable alternative to larger nuclear reactor units (SMRs are from 50-300mw – standard reactors are from 1000Mw to 1400Mw these days) – is nowhere in everyday operation. The SMR in Utah has been abandoned as not commercially viable, while SMRs in Russia and China do not seem to operate any more reliably, and deliver electricity no more cheaply than larger reactors, who produce electricity at 3-4 times the cost of renewables.
All of this reveals an energy policy based on what Dutton WANTS to be true, but not on what actually IS true. Those who support this kind of energy policy revels that they too, are making decisions based on what they would LIKE to be true and not on the hard facts of what IS true.
The recent CSIRO report seems to have it right. Nuclear power is unlikely to be available in Australia before 2040 (and in reality even this is optimistic). And it is several times the cost of renewables.
Peter Dutton has unveiled an ideology- based policy that has no roots in reality whatsoever.
In other words:
'Pigs can fly, earth is flat, and nuclear power is safe, reliable and cheap and can be delivered on schedule.'
John Hallam
People for Nuclear Disarmament
Human Survival Project
0411-854-612
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