With Peter Dutton’s recent announcement of the Liberal Party’s intention to go nuclear, the debate has intensified.
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On today’s The Briefing, we provided you with the top five facts about nuclear energy without the political spin.
Low Emissions
Nuclear power generates minimal carbon emissions. While mining uranium and constructing plants consumes energy, the actual power generation is nearly emission-free. This could help Australia achieve its net-zero emissions target by 2050.
Reliability
Unlike solar and wind, nuclear energy is a dependable source, providing consistent power day and night. It can serve as a stable replacement for coal power plants.
Safety
Modern nuclear power stations adhere to strict safety standards. Despite the notoriety of past disasters, the death toll from nuclear accidents is significantly lower than the fatalities caused by fossil fuel pollution.
“The number of people that have actually died from the results of nuclear power, there’s like a lot of dispute about that number. But whatever that number is, it’s a whole lot less than fossil fuels literally kill every year,” The Briefing host Bension Siebert said.
Cost
Nuclear power is expensive compared to renewables. Reports from the CSIRO indicate that nuclear energy would be significantly costlier than solar or wind with battery storage.
“Nuclear is about 1.5 to 2.5 times more expensive to produce than renewables, firmed with things like trees or storage, and if you use small modular reactors, which is this new type of new nuclear technology coming through now, that could be some six times more expensive than renewables.”
Waste Management
A nuclear plant producing power for a million people generates about three cubic metres of high-level waste annually, compared to 300,000 tonnes of ash and over 6 million tonnes of CO2 from coal.
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