Pemalite said:
curl-6 said:
Nuclear was the red line for me; I already decided not to vote Liberal due to Dutton being a piece of work and their lack of compelling policies, but their pro-nuclear stance would have cost them my vote even if I'd liked their leader and the rest of their policies. No way in hell do I want our country to end up the next Fukushima or Chernobyl, fuck right off with that shit. |
I am a hazmat technician and I get flown across the nation for incidents.
During COVID we had a van stopped at the border of South Australia/Victoria... Which was then searched.
Low-and-behold they found undocumented uranium.
Let's just say from a firefighters perspective, that shit is the last thing on Earth I want to be dealing with in my regular day job.
I have enough hazards that I need to keep on top of rather than add Nuclear/Radiation as a PRIMARY risk... I already have secondary risks to Radiation with mine sites like Olympic Dam.
Thorium reactors are a potential viable choice as they cannot maintain a chain reaction and are less prone to a traditional nuclear meltdown... But that's not what the Liberals were proposing.
In saying that, modern reactors are far far far safer than what we saw with Fukushima or Chernobyl, but Nuclear is extremely water intensive which is not a good fit for the driest inhabited continent on the planet. It's a stupid idea.
Especially when we have oodles of solar and wind capacity, more than any other Nation which we can backup with Hydro, Batteries, Solar Thermal and Geothermal for base load. |
China is making a desert Thorium reactor that doesn't require water.
https://www.mining.com/china-makes-thorium-based-nuclear-energy-breakthrough-using-past-us-work/
But no idea whether Australia has Thorium reserves and how safe that is.
You do have all the room in the world for Solar and Wind, it's just a question of maintenance and energy transport.
Nuclear fusion has been promised since I grew up, although then there was still the hope (and hoax) of cold fusion.
In 1989, scientists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have achieved nuclear fusion at room temperature using electrolysis of heavy water with palladium electrodes, a process dubbed "cold fusion".
Not reproduceable and doesn't seem likely. Nuclear fusion did reach a net gain result in 2023 but it's still going to be 2050-2060 before any real reactor can be ready.
Anyway roof tile solar should become standard in building, that would help a lot, but adds a lot of cost. Some scheme where the home owner doesn't pay for installation while the electric company credits you for half the energy made until paid off could work. Solar roadways are also having some promising results.
It just makes more sense to generate electricity right where its needed.
