nuclear-news

Fukushima has turned Australians off nukes

November 11, 2012 – 1:10PM

AAP

The Fukushima disaster has set back Australia’s willingness to embrace nuclear power, physicist Ziggy Switkowski says.

Dr Switkowski, who in 2006 chaired a commonwealth government inquiry that recommended Australia start using nuclear energy, said on Sunday that Australians were now less likely than they were then to accept nuclear energy due to problems at reactors.

Referring to Japan’s March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, Dr Switkowski said the momentum in favour of nuclear power had been steadily building but had been set back several years.

Dr Switkowski said the leaders in nuclear technology had also changed since the inquiry issued its recommendations.

“The arrival of Indians and Chinese as big players on the nuclear energy front means they are now the centre of gravity for the technology and deployment of nuclear reactors,” he told Network Ten’s Meet the Press.

The biggest hurdle to Australia using nuclear energy was political consensus, but as soon as that was achieved it would not take long to establish the industry, he said.

Dr Switkowski said while building the first substantial reactor would take 10 to 15 years, any subsequent reactors could be built quite quickly.

“If there was the political will, I think the economics are not an issue, the technology is well within our ability to manage and it’s definitely a clean technology,” he said.

“We could by the middle of the century have a substantial amount of our electricity generated by nuclear power.”

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/fukushima-has-turned-australians-off-nukes-20121111-2960s.html

November 11, 2012 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized