Should Australia go Nuclear?

[lazzadesilva]

As a matter of interest, who of the above “yes” voters is willing to have the nuclear waste dumped near them or in the sea off Australia?

[stui magpie]

^

We already have radioactive waste in 100 locations in Hospitals and Unis around Australia. https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/mi ... itt%20said.

In most cases, Nuclear waste is stored on the reactor site, so it's not going to be "Dumped" near people or in the oceans. That's just being silly.

(Incidentally, as the OP I voted "need more info" )

[Culprit]

It's not going to happen in my lifetime.

[What'sinaname]

As a matter of interest, who of the above “yes” voters is willing to have the nuclear waste dumped near them or in the sea off Australia?

The US has been running reactors since 1950. The total waste fits in a football field (NFL field that is 100m long) at a depth of less than 10m.

The waste argument is a nothing burger.

[Pies4shaw]

[stui magpie]

Load it into a rocket and send it to Pluto or the Sun.

[David]

^ Just hope it doesn't accidentally blow up on the way!

[stui magpie]

^

Yeah, that could be a slight issue.

[What'sinaname]

[Magpietothemax]

A rational debate on the future of the nuclear industry is hardly possible under the existing socio-economic system. The major nuclear corporations internationally have a network of bought-and-paid-for representatives in the media, scientific institutes and universities, and in government. Considerations of profit and rival nationalist interests dominate at every step.
While the profit motivation dominates, nuclear power plants will be built with minimal cost in mind, the least possible safety regulations etc to maximise profits for shareholders. Quite literally, nuclear power under capitalism is the embodiment of insanity. Nuclear power per se is not the issue, capitalism is the issue.

[Pies4shaw]

[Pies4shaw]

A rational debate on the future of the nuclear industry is hardly possible under the existing socio-economic system. The major nuclear corporations internationally have a network of bought-and-paid-for representatives in the media, scientific institutes and universities, and in government. Considerations of profit and rival nationalist interests dominate at every step.
While the profit motivation dominates, nuclear power plants will be built with minimal cost in mind, the least possible safety regulations etc to maximise profits for shareholders. Quite literally, nuclear power under capitalism is the embodiment of insanity. Nuclear power per se is not the issue, capitalism is the issue.

Chernobyl. Scoreboard much? Socialist radiation approved by the Dear Leader is less deadly than capitalist radiation? Our plutonium is more avaricious than theirs? What the hell are you driving at?

[Magpietothemax]

A rational debate on the future of the nuclear industry is hardly possible under the existing socio-economic system. The major nuclear corporations internationally have a network of bought-and-paid-for representatives in the media, scientific institutes and universities, and in government. Considerations of profit and rival nationalist interests dominate at every step.
While the profit motivation dominates, nuclear power plants will be built with minimal cost in mind, the least possible safety regulations etc to maximise profits for shareholders. Quite literally, nuclear power under capitalism is the embodiment of insanity. Nuclear power per se is not the issue, capitalism is the issue.

Chernobyl. Scoreboard much? Socialist radiation approved by the Dear Leader is less deadly than capitalist radiation? Our plutonium is more avaricious than theirs? What the hell are you driving at?

Soviet Union was not socialist. By definition, socialism means a world planned economy, and has not yet been established.
Soviet Union was a Stalinist dictatorship falsely claiming to represent socialism, in order to defend the interests of a parasitic and tyrnannical bureaucracy. The Soviet Union, an isolated nation state surrounded by the global capitalist economy, was totally unable to create safe nuclear energy. The catastrophe of Chernobyl signified the catastrophe of Stalinism.
Under genuine socialism, meaning a world planned economy, rational decisions could be made about the safest locations and the necessary safety requirements for nuclear reactors.

[Magpietothemax]

Answer to the OP question: should Australia go nuclear?
No, no nation state should try to build nuclear power reactors, while US imperialism is escalating war in Ukraine and Middle East
It is almost a miracle that there has not been a nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine, with a full scale war going on amidst nuclear reactors in Ukraine.
First, get rid of capitalism, and replace it with a world planned socialist economy, then start to think about where and how nuclear reactors should be built.

[pietillidie]

Modular nuclear tech looks promising but is as far if not further away from realisation than mass scale battery storage.

Are you sure you're not under-selling progress in grid-scale battery tech in the same way Abbott under-sold the falling price of solar panels?