In another few years after Yallourn and Liddell power stations have been closed down, you will be wondering why we don't have some nuclear power stations of our own, because all your renewables and batteries are not meeting the demands for peak power.

David

"Kerrie-Ann Garlick is the Conservation Council of Western Australia, Nuclear Free campaigner. She has extensive experience in campaigning to stop uranium mining in WA that spans over two decades" - and she has little experience of reality.

Who does she think she is fighting? It's not any politicians in Australia. We can't even have nuclear submarines to defend ourselves against Chinese nuclear submarines. We can't have it for cheap, clean power. Uranium for our own use is verboten.

Hypocritically, a little bit at Lucas Heights is OK, in case the high and mighty need treatment for cancer.

Why does the anti-nuclear crowd always denounce NP on account of these super large plants that failed.
The only reason for their failure was that they were too large to be controlled effectively.
Just look at how many np war ships there are operating for decades without a mishap.
So, why not build smaller, controllable NP stations around the place instead of these super large uncontrollable monstrosities ? Smaller plants could pay the way for more smaller plants instead of unaffordable up-front costs for large plants. A chain reaction of an economic kind !

Solar is Nuclear.

Ataday, solar might be the end product of nuclear however, it is never going to be scalable to provide the base load power required, even with huge advances in battery storage, to come anywhere near that which is required to satisfy even current users needs.

Nuclear will be our energy supply future, if not, we will all be living a lifestyle no one will want.

The author’s have absolutely no grasp on reality.
Galen

MORRISON (OR INDUSTRIAL LABOR) NEED TO LEAD THE WAY ON NUCLEAR SOON

I agree VK3AUU, ttbn, individual and Galen

Australia definitely needs Nuclear Power Reactors.

Best to start planning them soon. Reactors generally take 20+ years to plan and build and can be introduced as the coal fired power stations close down in Australia.
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@ateday

Solar and wind energy (even working to battery) do not provide sufficient base load power and can fail even in sunny South Australia.

This is on cold, still, Winter nights and during storms - no sunlight and wind-propellers are locked down (by power companies) to prevent over-rotational damage.

Australian electricity needs will rise sharply as plug-in, full electric cars "siphon off" more electricity from the grid, particularly after return from work, peak need, period (6pm-10pm) in competition with home electic heaters and especially Aircons which already compete for grid capacity.
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Australia is in a no large economy, experienced nuclear user condition to experiment with small "cutting edge" reactor technology, endlessly suggested by Alan B.

Best to use medium-large One Giga-watt (GW) size reactors - requiring Australia's non-Tsunami coastal coolant water flows. The water flow, sealed-piped, not in contact with radioactivity.

There are many Off-the-shelf Design, efficient, environmentally safe, reactors of this size in France http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx

or

Better still Canada (speak English, similar culture) see http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/canada-nuclear-power.aspx which has built reactors since the 1940s. Prices seem high but all large power stations (eg. highly polluting coal, gas and Dams (eg. Snowy 2.0)) already cost $Billions.