To nuke or not to nuke????
Is it just me or is everyone glad were having the nuclear power debate?
I think its amazing, because surely, 20 years ago we would not have even entertained the idea of nuclear power and while I am still opposed to it, I think the debate is great. What it means is that finally Australians are getting the point about the environment.
We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done. Massive chunks of the Antarctic ice shelf have already broken away, another drought is imminent, sea level rising all over the world…. there's no doubt that global warming is upon us.
I’ve tried to keep an open mind about nuclear power. Very sensible, very learned people will tell you that it is a clean, safe and sustainable and that’s great…but I don’t think it’s the solution.
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Producing electricity from nuclear power requires enormous infrastructure, enormous! It requires large amounts of water, which we haven’t got. It’s expensive and produces large quantities of long life toxic radio active waste, something I’m not prepared to leave buried in the ground for my grand children to deal with.
The Sunshine Coast was up in arms yesterday at the suggestion we might be an appropriate site for a nuclear site. It’s the old story. If you don’t want it here, I don’t think you should be voting to put it in someone else’s back yard either.
And then there are the immediate risks. The possibility of just one mistake, just one Chernobyl is enough to turn me off completely.
I know they say a nuclear power plant would not be weapons grade, but they way I understand it, any nuclear plant creates huge amounts of plutonium, which is the fuel for nuclear weapons…not to mention a lure for terrorists.
Like I said, I’m glad we’re having the debate, we’re killing ourselves with fossil fuels… But to know the pitfalls of nuclear energy and choose it anyway seems bizarre to me.
I think its amazing, because surely, 20 years ago we would not have even entertained the idea of nuclear power and while I am still opposed to it, I think the debate is great. What it means is that finally Australians are getting the point about the environment.
We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done. Massive chunks of the Antarctic ice shelf have already broken away, another drought is imminent, sea level rising all over the world…. there's no doubt that global warming is upon us.
I’ve tried to keep an open mind about nuclear power. Very sensible, very learned people will tell you that it is a clean, safe and sustainable and that’s great…but I don’t think it’s the solution.
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Producing electricity from nuclear power requires enormous infrastructure, enormous! It requires large amounts of water, which we haven’t got. It’s expensive and produces large quantities of long life toxic radio active waste, something I’m not prepared to leave buried in the ground for my grand children to deal with.
The Sunshine Coast was up in arms yesterday at the suggestion we might be an appropriate site for a nuclear site. It’s the old story. If you don’t want it here, I don’t think you should be voting to put it in someone else’s back yard either.
And then there are the immediate risks. The possibility of just one mistake, just one Chernobyl is enough to turn me off completely.
I know they say a nuclear power plant would not be weapons grade, but they way I understand it, any nuclear plant creates huge amounts of plutonium, which is the fuel for nuclear weapons…not to mention a lure for terrorists.
Like I said, I’m glad we’re having the debate, we’re killing ourselves with fossil fuels… But to know the pitfalls of nuclear energy and choose it anyway seems bizarre to me.


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