Fester SPOT ON... do you work for the PRC as as a fifth columnist?.. Only joking, but that's the game plan, WE live in the 8th decade of the PRC 100 year grand plan.. only 30 years to go, and based on any strategic plan I have reviewed and assessed.. they on Track +/- 5%.

Alan stop tell us all that nuclear power is essential. WE AGREE, and even MSR can be in the mix.. SO WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO BELEIVE THAT CO2 IS THE DEMON... ITS NOT.. ITS THE ATMOSPHERIC BATHWAY FOR THE CARBON CYCLE... Pretty SMALL MIND YOU!

Its nice and wet here in Sydney, Warragamba is overflowing and even Wyangla is overflowing ( this is a dam in the wrong place with too small a catchment. If it is overflowing, Tim Flannery should be surfing off the spillway as punishment for the nonsense and misdirection he has profited (heavily$$$) from.

Lets do a straw pole, whose dams are full among all those who have commented on this article comment stream??

Indonesia is essentially still a third world economy with substantial coal reserves. And will have MSR thorium before we do! Around Chrismas? Why? Because it's cheaper than coal, cleaner than coal, safer than coal.

And because thorium is both abundant Everybody has some. And it is the most energy-dense material on the planet! Have a look at thorium in five minutes to see how much fossil fuel energy we'd need to replace just five thousand tons of thorium which is enough to power the entire planet for a year!

Australia needs a nuclear industry and nuclear weapons, not solar voltaic that has a Wiga slave labour component and need taxpayer-funded subsidies.

If we are to have a solar industry then why not solar thermal that uses mostly Australian steel mirrors and Australian labour And stores useful heat, for up to a week, in salt banks, in giant thermos vacuum vessels.

And use recyclable, highly polished Australian stainless steel as the huge bank of mirrors as the heat component. And outlays in the build around 2.5 times that of comparable coal-fired power stations.

Thereafter, the comparative cost comes down due to almost nil running costs and free fuel!

Even so, even geothermal and all the discussed alternatives don't even come close to nuclear on build costs. And only solar thermal competes on operational costs, for the stated reasons.

As for recycling? What holds that back is the current prohibitive cost of energy, made more expensive by the number of totally unproductive drones it also has to carry!
Alan B.

Alan B, sop ranting. WE all Know Nuclear power has been abused by the stupid lefties who spent too much time on LSD, weed or whatever... So be positive and read what others write that support your passion for nuclear power.. I.E. align yourself with common-sense and maybe we can all make a difference?