<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/im-not-interested-in-the-fanatics-dutton-responds-to-science-academys-report-on-nuclear-smrs/>
"Opposition leader Peter Dutton has dismissed a report on nuclear small modular
reactors by the highly respected Australian Academy of Technological Sciences
and Engineering, saying the Coalition has consulted its own experts and it is
not interested in the views of “fanatics.”
ATSE on Wednesday described SMRs as a “chimera”, and said they were unlikely to
be able to be built in Australia before the mid to late 2040s, more than a
decade before the Coalition’s timeline of 2035.
The report by ATSE is in line with other assessments by the CSIRO, the
Australian Energy Regulator, the Australian Energy Market Operator, former
chief scientist and virtually everyone in the energy industry.
But Dutton dismissed it out of hand.
“What this report shows is that the lights are going to go out, and that wind,
in particular, is not reliable,” he told journalists in the Hunter Valley, not
far from one of the sites identified by the Coalition to host a nuclear power
plant, according to a transcript posted on his website.
Actually, the ATSE report says nothing of the sort. It doesn’t address grid
reliability problems, nor does it look at SMR costs or waste issues.
It observes that the technology does not yet exist in OECD countries, will not
likely be commercially available for another 20 years, and concludes that any
move to go earlier – as the Coalition wants to do – would be both costly and
risky.
Dutton, however, is undeterred by such expert arguments, and by fact-checkers."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
