goodbye nuclear, and good riddance

In earlier times, renewables were more expensive and it was thought that nuclear reactors could be built far more cheaply; but we now know that none of this is true, and much of this propaganda results from corporate greenwashing. Support for nuclear power in Australia has nothing to do with energy policy ‒ it is a component of the ‘culture wars’ driven by conservative ideologues, such as Andrew Bolt or Barnaby Joyce who support coal, oppose renewables, loathe environmentalists, and deny climate change science.

In reality, renewable power is far cheaper than nuclear power. Investment firm Lazard’s November 2018 report on ‘levelised costs of electricity’ found that wind power and utilityscale solar are approximately four times cheaper than nuclear power. A 2018 report by the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator concluded that “solar and wind generation technologies are currently the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity for Australia.” Renewables can also provide a far greater contribution to power supply and to climate change abatement compared to an equivalent investment in nuclear power. Peter Farley, a fellow of the Australian Institution of Engineers, recently proved that we can get equivalent renewable power plus backup power for a third of the cost of nuclear power, in a third of the time.

Apart from its inability to compete with renewables, there are plenty of other reasons to be concerned about the nuclear industry as well.

- In Australia, an important concern is the nuclear industry’s appalling treatment of First Nations peoples. Maralinga is one example, where the government tested nuclear weapons on Indigenous land. The fallout gave radiation poisoning to Indigenous communities. - Nuclear power programs have provided cover for numerous secret nuclear weapons programs (including in Australia). In a worst-case scenario, nuclear warfare would quickly cause catastrophic climate change. - No country has a dump for high-level nuclear waste. - Nuclear power is incredibly thirsty: a single reactor consumes 35‒65 million litres of water every day, mostly for cooling. - Catastrophic nuclear accidents are rare but devastating in many respects, as in the case of Chernobyl (which cost an estimated A$1000 billion) and Fukushima.

In January 2019, the Climate Council, comprising Australia’s leading climate scientists and other policy experts, issued a policy statement concluding that nuclear power plants “are not appropriate for Australia – and probably never will be.” The statement continued: “Nuclear power stations are highly controversial, can’t be built under existing law in any Australian state or territory, are a more expensive source of power than renewable energy, and present significant challenges in terms of the storage and transport of nuclear waste, and use of water.”