I do agree carbon capture is stupid. Snake oil if you ask me.

About untested technologies: Chicken and egg problem. Just like Turnbull declaring we don't need any faster than 15Mbit connection because nothing now that requires that kind of bandwith. Should we have developed the aeroplane? First few iterations certainly wasn't anything to write home about.

Warp drive? How on earth are you going to power that, with fossil fuel? Nope, most likely with fission or fusion power. If you don't research the fundamentals, how are you going to unlock future techs?

Yes and its crucial that the Australian taxpayer is exposed to extremely high financial risks in testing and perfecting new nuclear technologies in Australia.

The logic of new nuclear technologies being developed and fielded in countries with existing nuclear power industries and thus a much higher nuclear knowledge base (like the US and France) is avoided and evaded.

The US and France know something the nuclear cargo cultists* don't.

* cargo cult = the belief that various ritualistic acts will lead to a bestowing of material wealth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

Thorium reactors were developed in the fifties, and are just not new technology. [China, is producing one a week?]
On and on the anti-nuclear/anti-development brigade go, trotting out misinformation or the endless scare campaign!
i.e, We don't want to be a test bed, and it'll cost way too much etc.
What?
Cheaper than coal thorium? Costing way too much?
Garbage in garbage out!
But particularly and as shown, when they can't argue with the facts!
And paramount among those facts is; we are not facing an extinction level event due to nuclear power options, but one that is becoming more and more likely, as we burn more and more carbon!
And one of the few affordable options to help us defeat that, is the nuclear option; but particularly, cheaper than coal thorium!
Now today, rather than wait until we are inundated virtually overnight, with a 3 metre wall of melt water!
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty: Now today, rather than wait until we are inundated virtually overnight, with a 3 metre wall of melt water!

Over night? Well if you take it in relation the 4 Billion year old history of the Earth.

I agree with you Rhrosty, Nuclear is the way to go utilizing some of the new Technology that is available. Australia is lucky enough not to have many large earthquake fault line running through the Continent. It seems that just about every other Nuclear Power Plant is built straddling a fault line. Why is that?

As for storage of Waste. Australia does have lots of wide open spaces that could be utilized to store the Waste. We could store the Worlds Nuclear Waste here & we could make it safe from theft. Countries could pay for the storage & if they default on the storage then we would own it. Sooner or later Scientists will find a way to utilize it in a safe way & we will own the Worlds supply. It's a Win, Win.

New industry's, opportunities, employment & a huge financial reward to boot.

Hi Rhrosty

Time to commit yourself to Hari Krishna with a dull plastic sword.

1. Yes China is building ONE thorium TEST reactor that may be ready, not in 25 years, but maybe in 10 years http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100026863/china-going-for-broke-on-thorium-nuclear-power-and-good-luck-to-them/

2. China has 28 PWR* (that pressurised water reactors) under constuction over 20 years. Thats one about every 9 months (like babies) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_China . After 65 years of commercial power reactor functioning and experimentation only PWR reactors have been proven reliable and economical :)

3. In 2007 it was reported China was constructing 562 new COAL-fired power stations over the next few years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_China#Coal_2 .

So maybe one COAL fired power station per week.

Please send cash in lieu of abject apologies to the Master :)

Pete

after Fukushima, Germany had a sea change in attitude toward nuclear energy, and has been decommissioning its reactors, but relying on coal power in the meantime before renewables take up the slack.

The Germans are not taking any more chances on nuclear as a viable energy source, and the cost is also quite prohibitive.

The Germans love their children, too.