Something In The Air: I'll wait and see

Fraser Coast Chronicle
Tuesday 22/5/2007 Page: 7

As the nuclear debate lurches forward in Australia, this environmental idealist will support any energy sources that are sustainable and help to address climate change. But I will only support nuclear energy if it can compete on an equal basis with renewable energy, which I don't believe it can. Hidden government subsidies and deferred costs will be used to make it look financially viable.

Putting aside risks of nuclear weapons proliferation, the two main issues are accidents and radioactive waste. While the nuclear industry has an excellent safety record, there have been accidents other than Chernobyl. Nuclear plants are also potential targets for terrorism. Despite the small risk, a big nuclear accident has such far reaching ramifications that the full risk is uninsurable.

The World Nuclear Association's website says there are 270,000 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel rods in temporary storage world-wide with 12,000 tonnes added each year. They also say that "final disposal is not urgent". Disposal implies that nature will eventually return it to the environment. But spent fuel rods will take at least 10,000 years to decay to the same level of radioactivity as high-grade uranium ore and at least 100,000 years to become truly safe. So I think it is much more honest to speak of "storage".

The nuclear industry has been going for fifty years but no high level nuclear waste has been permanently stored. Permanent storage requires spent fuel to be encased in solid copper canisters that are placed far underground in rock that is believed to be geologically stable for at least 100,000 years and then backfilled all the way to the surface. Only the Swedes and Finns are even close to achieving this incredible engineering feat.

It is unlikely that any corporation or government can guarantee the safe storage of dangerous radioactive waste for a time that is at least as long as civilization has existed and perhaps as long as humans have been walking on this planet. So when the nuclear industry is prepared to accept full liability for the risk and has a permanent waste storage facility, not just planned but actually in place, then I'll be prepared to consider nuclear energy as competing on a level playing field. In the meantime I will continue to say no to nuclear energy.