When The Atom-merchants Come Courting

Newcastle Herald

Friday September 30, 2005

Greg Ray

TALKING about nuclear energy arouses strong passions on both sides of the debate.

The pro-nuke folk say atomic energy is clean, safe and inevitable because it generates far less greenhouse gases than coal or gas-fired power.

The anti-nukers admit some of this, but worry about trying to store radioactive waste for tens of thousands of years and about the prospects of nuclear accidents.

Lately global warming has been high on the public agenda, partly because of the hurricanes in the US, the drought in Australia and other evidence of climate change. The Antarctic ice shelves are in retreat. Glaciers are vanishing. Mountains are losing icecaps they have had for a millennia. The Arctic tundra is thawing, liberating methane into the air and accelerating the warming effect still further.

We should not need more evidence to be very worried. There are so many terrifying possibilities mixed up in global warming that it demands urgent action.

Enter the nuclear industry, adjusting its damaged halo and offering a radioactive bouquet.

Sorry to the friendly professors and other admittedly knowledgeable people who are helping the industry to press its case: I am not buying.

Let's say we build atomic power plants into our energy grid. That is fine, so long as we can guarantee a number of things.

For it to be truly safe we want the radioactivity to be contained. Sorry, the industry has a lousy record in that regard. Every other month we read about some power plant or other getting caught dumping radioactive waste where it should not, either accidentally or deliberately.

We want transport of fuels and waste to be accident-free. That is going to need more luck and good management than humans usually provide.

We do not want nuclear material being used by the weapons industry in either "rogue" states or in "friendly" nations. Sadly, the two industries work hand in glove. Uranium is so commonly used in modern weapons that some areas of recent conflict (Kosovo, Iraq) will remain radiation hotbeds for years, with cancer levels already obscenely high as a result.

We need a guarantee of no cataclysmic system failures, and that is whether or not you subscribe to the Alexander Downer view that Chernobyl was not really a big deal.

We cannot guarantee there will be no catastrophes. Cyclones, earthquakes, civil unrest, wars, sabotage, terrorism, human errors and major economic dislocations could all put a nuclear-powered energy grid at risk of failure and disaster. No human society has ever shown any sign of being stable enough for long enough to be able to ensure the permanence the nuclear option demands to be truly safe.

The CSIRO in Newcastle is working on technology to make coal-fired power stations virtually emission-free. It could already be done, if we would pay the price.

Let's pay it, I say, and send the atom-merchants packing.

© 2005 Newcastle Herald

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