top of page
Search

EDITORIAL SERIES – PART 1

DUTTON & HIS LNP SHEEP NEED TO BE TORN APART ON NUCLEAR !

 

PART 1 – HERE WE GO AGAIN & THE IDIOCY OF THE LNP


Voters may have forgotten that Morrison was against nuclear power except if powering future submarines. Way back in 1969 the John Gorton government proposed a 500MW nuclear power station at Jervis Bay but this was shelved when Billy McMahon became Prime Minister as it would be too expensive to build.

Before Morrison, little Johnny Howard in 1998 agreed to a Greens amendment to the National Radiation and Nuclear Safety Act (1998) to gain Senate support for a new research reactor at Lucas Heights. That amendment prohibited development of other nuclear facilities.  

 

Nuclear power is prohibited in Australia, principally by two pieces of Federal legislation - the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act); and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 (ARPANS Act). These laws effectively prevent the construction or operation of nuclear facilities for power generation, as well as facilities for the fabrication of nuclear fuel, uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of nuclear waste. Individual states have also from time to time introduced legislation preventing nuclear developments. 

 

Victoria

Nuclear power development became prohibited under the Nuclear Activities (Prohibitions) Act 1983 in the state of Victoria and the law remains in place.

 

NSW

Uranium Mining and Nuclear Facilities (Prohibitions) Act 1986 No 194 prohibits nuclear power in NSW and originally uranium mining.

Uranium mining was previously prohibited in New South Wales under the above Act  however in 2012 Premier Barry O'Farrell amended the legislation to allow prospecting and mining of uranium in that State.

 

QLD

 

TAS

The Greens introduced the Uranium Mining and Nuclear Facilities (Prohibitions) Bill 2006 in the lower house of the Tasmanian parliament in 2007. But Labor and Liberal MPs combined to defeat the Bill, which Greens deputy leader Nick McKim said would have banned nuclear reactors, and uranium mining and enrichment in Tasmania

SA

 

WA

Nuclear Activities Short title. Regulation Act, 1978

 

NT

The NT has the Nuclear Waste Transport, Storage and Disposal (Prohibition) ACT 2004 which bans the construction and operation of nuclear waste storage facilities and also bans the import of nuclear waste.

 

ACT

Nuclear power stations are banned. The ACT also called on the government to support the UN non-proliferation treaty on nuclear weapons.

 

So, for starters, Dutton and his nuclear tag-alongs have a major obstacle. Nuclear power and waste storage are banned in this country. Their only hope therefore would be to win government back in 2025 (any later would be too late for nuclear in this country anyway) and then change federal laws BUT then there are the States. They won’t be so easily convinced. So, as before in Gorton’s time, Dutton would be faced with only the ACT to locate a nuclear power plant.

 

To lift any such current bans will require bipartisan support PLUS community support. A failure to achieve this would doom nuclear for good.

 

Let‘s not forget that the whole point of Dutton raising nuclear again is as a means to achieving 43% carbon emissions reductions by 2030. It won’t happen !

 

Dutton’s whole nuclear premise is built on Small Modular Reactor technology or SMR’s. But, it doesn’t exist yet. So how on earth does he plan to use nuclear to combat emissions within 6 years? It is pure lunacy. Even if he were to win in 2025, he then needs to lift national and State nuclear bans. Then he needs to design and build a nuclear power delivery system,  assuming he gets bipartisan and community support, in less than 6 years! But at what cost?

 

Don’t forget, Dutton is talking about SMR technology which covers power stations which produce probably well under 300MW. To be totally nuclear, he would need 70 to 100 SMR’s which is completely unrealistic. Hence his notion of nuclear supplementing renewables rather than replacing them.

 

That won’t happen either. By 2030, the contribution of renewables to emissions reduction and our country’s power supply will be considerably higher than at present. Nuclear will never catch up – on any measure ! Especially cost and timeliness !

 

And don’t forget, the IPA’s ‘Distinguished Fellow’ (sic) and former PM Tony Abbott was recently not averse to nuclear power generation even though in 2007 he supported it but not with government funding. Now if he supports it, it cannot be good for our country !! Remember, this was the clown who sat on his hands for 18 months and refused to budge on Australia’s RET (Renewable Energy Target) and in doing so severely damaged investment in renewables – if he had not done this, we would be much further advanced in our conversion to renewables !

 

We respectfully request all LNP voters to ignore Dutton’s lies and misinformation on nuclear. You need to see this guy for what he really is. He is an ignoramus and will never be Prime Minister of this country. To make sure, we will continue our series on nuclear and why Dutton needs to be completely ignored.

 

Watch for more parts to our Editorial Series on nuclear!

 

GB / AB


6 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page