Wade Allison's website http://www.radiationandreason.com/

I'm very much hoping the Nationals planned Senate Select Committee on nuclear energy in Australia can make enough headway for the LNP to take it to the people at the next election, rather than a further incremental, and pointless, renewables thrust towards emissions reduction.

Finally, and here's the real kicker,(CARBON FREE) MSR thorium can also be tasked with burning and re-burning other folks nuclear waste. Which in an MSR, is just unspent CARBON FREE)fuel. And be paid annual billions for providing a safe service the entire world will thank us for.

And after we've extracted the unspent(CARBON FREE) energy, around 98% from a product that powered reactors for 30+ years with just 1%, we could power the entire world for thousands of (CARBON FREE) years with its current nuclear waste stockpile.

Now some green anti-nuclear activists, have as usual for them, come out with veritable mountains of misinformation. Made all sort of bogus claims about (CARBON FREE) nuclear energy and nuclear waste.

Talked about gamma radiation almost as if highly credential operators would actually ever run an unshielded reactor, talked about meltdowns and other BS!
As if in a (CARBON FREE) MSR the molten salt would melt.
When the stuff is already molten and designed to percolate away in designed passive walk away very-very safety at operating temperatures between 700-1200C.

And at less than 3 cents PKWH if just (CARBON FREE) thorium and under one cent if burning other folks (CARBON FREE) nuclear waste. And the annual billions we could earn supplying the service would currently pay for all the new reactors and associated (CARBON FREE) power plants we could ever require! Ever!

It just doesn't get any better or any easier! All while or "intelligent" leaders have waffled and quibbled/prevaricated away about a non-existent or mad hatter's (CARBON LOADED) energy policy!

Go figure!
Alan B.

I fear the 100% renewable energy crowd are going to lead us into energy shortages in the next decade, notably for dispatchable electricity and transportation fuel. I predict they will call for more of what demonstrably doesn't work. The latest quarterly emissions bulletin covering mid 2001 to 2019 shows just a 3% decrease in emissions despite many billions in renewable subsidies. Meanwhile the price of gas has tripled since 2015.

The replacement for coal which generates about 64% of Australia's electricity is logically nuclear perhaps incentivised by CO2 constraints. Alternatively we could have a sixfold increase in wind and solar with at least 2 Twh of storage. The trouble with storage is that large scale pumped hydro won't be ready in time and batteries are too small and expensive. I fear this penny won't drop until after the next big coal closure in 2022. Time to hold the green dreamers to account.

LEGO , Did you really mean the 688 class?

Half of them have been junked already and the youngest is over 20 years old.

Did you mean the SSN-774 class ?

Consider for a moment, the cost of nuclear power, currently twice that of coal. And because of the extremely high pressures conventional reactors need to withstand, the extremely high cost of prefabricated fuel rods and the fact that rods in the centre of the reactor must be moved from the centre to the outer perimeter every eighteen months with the reactor requiring brand new replacement rods every 4.5 years.

Even then, still only uses less than 1% of the available energy leaving 99% of it trapped in the so-called waste product. [The rods then transferred to water-filled holding tanks until they're less radioactively hot! water being a natural shield against neutron transfer.]

And have to incorporate numerous fail-safe systems in case one system fails and another needs to kick in to keep the whole thing stable!

Now, imagine a different system (MSR thorium) that operates at near normal atmosphere, self regulates the reaction and does not require special reactor vessels nor expensive hardened buildings. And then uses the remaining unspent energy of nuclear waste or around a further 98%.

That's 98 times more energy than that the estimated cost 12 cents PKWH, for just 1% of the available stored energy!

Do the sums. divide 12 by 98 to see the projected cost PKH, when the device, very safely burns a further 98% of it and at normal atmospheric pressure!

And for the annual billions, we also earn safely disposing of other nation nuclear waste stockpiles, and even weapons-grade plutonium, if the world and the green anti-nuclear brigade and the (too clever by half) government ever regains its sanity!

Imagine power so cheap, clean and safe, the high tech manufacturers of the world (jobs, jobs, jobs and our future) will queue to get in.

Moreover, able to be tasked to very economically to, not just drought-proof the nation, but, turn some of its most arid regions into food bowls that feed and clothe the world?
Alan B.

if we had not been so dumb as to swallow the gw Koolaid in the first place and line the pockets of charlatans we would not be having this debate. Unfortunately real scientist were either silenced or sacked. Hopefully the conservatives have learn't their silence and playing the dumb game has greatly contributed to the energy mess. Thank God Turnbull and his mates are gone.