Oh dear. I have believed for about 60 years that the whole antinuclear energy movement was irrational and looked even worse than that when 30 or so years ago an urgent specific new reason for switching to clean energy emerged. Did that new need perturb Jim Green's antinuclear sentiments. Not a bit. Now I understand. It must be because I'm a thug. What a relief.

Another 'child in a man's body'. Poor old Jim.

FWIW I think the Pt Augusta SMR should be located further down Spencer Gulf at the proposed Cape Hardy precinct. That avoids the warm, shallow hypersaline water at the top of the gulf. Eyre Peninsula need only have the one desal not two to serve both Pt Lincoln and Olympic Dam. The extra power could help BHP triple copper production. Maybe some tie in with subs.

That's unless the Barngarla people object as they did with Kimba after spending $86m on preparation. Apparently the Seven Sisters Dreaming needs the run of the whole area. Should perchance nuclear power go ahead the spent fuel can be stashed down one of the disused mines in the Woomera rocket range area patrolled by DoD. BTW nationally on Saturday morning 21 GW out of 27 GW demand was met by coal and gas, batteries contributed 0.2 GW. Good luck reversing that with wind and solar.

The heavily subsidised wind and solar industry will be panicking after Dutton’s nuclear announcement.

If their toys were really the best and cheapest, as Bowen keeps telling everyone, they would have nothing to worry about. Their fear of competition indicates that they have a lot to worry about. It's not just the money, but the possibility of their ignorance and lies being noticed by more and more people. For Albanese Labor, this is a real threat to their hopes of another term.

Now that Dutton is starting to act like the leader Albanese is not, and never will be, investors in renewables will start thinking about where they will put their money.

The Clean Energy Investor Group will be thinking hard about that $38 billion they have wagered on renewables. Not to mention the money they have laid out to keep Labor in power.

On the other hand, this crony capitalism could still be a threat to Dutton’s plans.

As always, it will be up to voters to take more interest in their own interests - and ignore the ideology that has been dictating energy policy since Morrison signed up to the idiocy of Net Zero, and the appalling pile on by Albanese.

Investment in renewables is already falling: down to its lowest level for 8 years.

The time is right for a return to common sense and the ousting of the ideology that has driven policy.

Dutton has provided us with the opportunity to do that.

Just another fine example of parasitism vs Symbiosis !

While Labor rants about three-eyed fish and the costs of nuclear, let us not forget their own $1.3 trillion for renewables that are showing no sign or being able to provide cheap, reliable electricity. Their you-beaut scheme is proving to be purely ideological, and a great lurk for foreign investors to hoover up huge taxpayer subsidies.

ALL politicians are thugs!

I personally have nothing for or against nuclear energy, but if this thing finally breaks down the commonwealth of Australia, then at least one good thing would come out of it.

And BTW, Anne Twomey is wrong in stating that states could not prevent the Commonwealth establishing a nuclear power plant: I just cannot conceive of Australian soldiers, many of them from the same state which they are ordered to attack, agreeing to fire on citizens and local police to get them out of the site, then fortifying and guarding the place for many years while the plant is being built against constant sabotage by the local state and citizens. Further, even if they succeed, the local state can simply cut off the power lines coming out from that plant. At the bottom line, nobody can force citizens to use electricity.

It is extraordinary how many people who obviously have not even
rudimentary knowledge of electricity make ridiculous statements !
Take this one;
"So Dutton will seize the land on which coal plants are located even
if the company planned to install renewables !"

The transmission lines run North & South mainly in NSW.
Just install the nuclear plant a couple of mile away up or down the line. Simple !

This doozy from Albo on radio;
The output of nuclear plants is fixed and it cannot be adjusted."
Of course it can, that is why they have moderators.

There are many comments on how batteries will solve all renewable's problems.
No one seems to think about just when you can get to recharge the
batteries. You can't just recharge off the grid after a long cold
still night when the sun comes up effectively at 9am the next day.
You need to get the batteries recharged by 3pm as the sun dies so as
to get the batteries charged by 4-30 as the next cold night comes on.
So you need about 12 hours of 4pm to 8am supply for the next night
which will have to come from elsewhere.
You have to install duplicate renewables just for recharging.
Wind speeds are quite low in Eastern Australia at present.

Wind turbines do not start to give output till a certain speed.
I do not know what is that speed.
Also over 25 knots or km/hr they shut down.

Somehow the public and politicians have got to be informed of these difficulties.
Life wasn't meant to be easy !

I understand the range of acceptable wind speeds is 18 kph to 90 kph. With a lull or a storm they put the brakes on. They ice up below -27C not a problem for Australia. Too bad if there is heavy cloud cover at the same time as low wind, the dreaded dunkelflaute conditions that SE Australia has had recently.

Apart from using existing transmission, coal to nuclear C2N may require the cooling pond and some of the switchyard. Skilled workers nearby also helps. When Hazelwood was going barramundi fish lived in the cooling pond, alas now succumbed to cold.

One very important limitation not mentioned so far is the obvious shortage of reliable huge daily amounts of cold water to cool these proposed nuclear power plants at most/all of the proposed sites.

There was enough water for coal fired generation, so it should not be an issue. Barakah uses sea water for cooling.

But in light of your concern where will all the water come from for pumped hydro? Could you imagine the environmental destruction if there were a power crisis in future and salt water were used as an emergency measure?

Actual financial costs aside, renewables are too costly in an environmental sense. Or, do the pro renewable supporters think Cobalt for batteries & Aluminium & glass & copper can be grown in Hydroponics ?

This Noalition thought bubble looks doomed to failure, nothing of substance has been presented, and its most like not now or ever coming our way. Dutton will try all sorts of smoke and mirrors in an attempt to win over voters, since he is bereft of any decent policy. Most will realise thst this is nothing more than a political con job. After the next election Dutton will be no more, you can count on that. BTW who is next in the pecking order to lead the Noalition? Maybe its a job for Ditzy Susan, oh no, perish the thought.

The Greens were forged in a protest against damming the Franklin. Now they stake their future on environmental destruction orders of magnitude worse, a destruction that would be avoided completely with nuclear.

Hi Fester,

Other than the Dutton mob and their sycophants, no one with any credible understanding of the energy situation in Australia, not science, not capital, no one is backing this political thought bubble of the Noalitions. They had no energy policy, so what do they do, they invent an ill-conceived load of hogwash around nuclear power. The question is simple, give us the detail, and not the smoke and mirrors being peddled at the moment. The truth is, in power the Noalition would continue with a dead in the water fossil fuel policy. As for attacking the Greens, good on yah, go for it, you have little else of substance to offer.

Hi Paul,

If it's all about expert opinion and doing what works, then why didn't ANSTO get the job of estimating the cost of nuclear and why is the successful use of nuclear in the rest of the world being ignored? For the cost of Snowy 2.0 at least the same generating capacity of nuclear could be built here were the ban lifted. So instead of getting 2.2 gigawatts continuously for perhaps 95% of the time we are getting an environmental disaster that at best stores a week of 2.2 gigawatts supply. Why are the Greens in Finland and Labour in the UK strong advocates of nuclear power?

The Green movement is nothing more than a parasitic outfit not at all concerned about cleaning the environment. Australian Greens can not be put into the same barrel as others who actually have some integrity even though misguided. The Australian Greens are simply a bunch of no-hope maggots !
If they were as concerned as they're trying us to believe then why aren't they using integrity ?

"The Australian Greens are simply a bunch of no-hope maggots !" crude, rude and abusive, people have been kicked off this forum for using the word MAGGOT, but you have nothing to fear Indy, you're on the RIGHT side of the fence.

crude, rude and abusive,
Paul1405,
Only to you & your ilk, to normal working folks it's simply stating how it is !

you're on the RIGHT side of the fence.
Paul1405,
Yes, where the grass is greener because you lot haven't trampled it yet !