Joe,

You mention nuclear powered submarines. We have a government that is intent on having our next fleet of submarines CONVERTED from nuclear to old fashioned and dangerous (lack of stealth and range) diesel. Governments, both parties, who act in such a bizarre way are highly unlikely to accept nuclear power.

You also mention Chernobyl. Here's something I read recently about Chernobyl:

" There were technical problems when one reactor overheated on an evening shift in April 1986. It could have been easily controlled, but the supervising manager was out of his depth. In return for his standing and activism in the Communist Party, he had been allowed to skip units during his engineering studies. In fact it came out in the subsequent investigation that he had completed barely half of the required coursework. Strings had been pulled by Soviet officials to ensure university administration waved him through. So, years later, when he had a demanding job with great responsibilities, he couldn’t cope with a simple hitch. He gave wrong instructions to staff. That led to the world’s worst nuclear accident". (Dr. Christopher Heathcote, in article the failure of making allowances for certain people in education, Quadrant Online, 20/11/2019)

The old socialist policies again. More dangerous than nuclear?

People who have been waffling on about the dangers of nuclear power, but who believe a bit of carbon dioxide will bring the world down, are idiots. There is no polite way to describe them.

Hi Taswegian,

Speaking of EVs - when would be the most sensible time to charge up an EV's battery ? Probably in the early hours. When would the pumping up-hill of Snowy 2.0 water be cheapest ? Probably in the early hours. So increased demand for electricity in the early hours in our most built-up areas ?

But don't economists advise us about supply and demand ? If demand goes up, so do prices ? So will Snowy 2.0 will pay standard rates for pumping water up-hill, and charge standard rates for consumers by running it downhill. So down the track, if EVs ever get going in a big way, there could be an evening-out of electricity prices over the 24-hours ?

Have I got something wrong ?

But it still might have been a Good Idea at the time.

Joe

@Joe that's a tricky question. AFAIK Snowy Hydro reckon they will pump using windpower and solar by day, probably discharge 6pm-10pm then go back to wind power til dawn. California found that too much coal power went into pumped hydro so had a curfew. You can either charge an EV when grid power is cheapest if TOU pricing comes in or when it is lowest carbon not necessarily cheapest.

Slight catch I don't see Snowy being built before 2030 if ever. Maybe for now charge the EV with home PV by day then transfer from a home battery at night.

When is the best time to plant a tree?

Answer, twenty years ago.

We could have embraced clean safe, carbon-free nuclear energy twenty years ago, but for ignorant fearmongering.

Fatalities for gigawatt of power produced is lowest for nuclear! See Alan Goulding's Facebook page for a couple of evidential videos complete with comparative charts/graphs.

If coal-fired and gas-fired power had to pass the same rogue emission standard as nuclear? All would be forced to close!

The ost associated with current nuclear is the pressure they are required to wor at, 50 atmospheres and the cost of prefabricated and enriched solid fuel.

Remove both those elements and suddenly one has nuclear power no fossil fuel can compete with on cost and safety. And allows other folks nuclear waste to be burnt as fuel we are paid to take from them in annual billions. And in walk away safe, MSR's. We could if sanity finally prevails, build several of these with other folks money!

And a couple or three thorium powered examples to primarily produce medical isotopes, not the least of which would be alpha particle isotope, bismuth 213. Which would have a nice healthy medical tourism spin-off and many current death sentence cancers sent to remission!

All that stands in the way is sovereign risk to some of the debt-laden tax avoiding, price gouging, profit repatriating, foreign investors!? Even though cancers like brain cancer and ovarian cancers both individually exceed the annual road toll!
Alan B

For every 'tricky question' on alternative energy, there is an even trickier answer.

Taswegian. You had better do some sums on the number of solar panels and batteries you would need for all that power. You might be surprised how big the numbers are if you live where you do.
David