And just where is all the Nuclear waste going to be stored? Better to spend $$$ immediately to conserve energy (use less)- save money - save the environment. Conservation measures can be implemented immediately (shut of the lights you don't need, etc). This is not high tech. It's just common sense. From Marblehead, MA USA

I hope hsk01945 does not think that uranium left in the ground is harmless. In fact uranium ore - an honest to goodness all natural material – is radioactive and if close to the surface leaks radioactive material into water courses and gamma rays into the air. In fact some tribes living traditionally in the vicinity of these natural ores experience health problems and reduced life expectancy as a result.

Waste from nuclear reactors wrapped in lead and stored in containers in stable geological sites well below the surface do not give these problems and of course removing the uranium from the ground makes the area safer. Another solution is to dilute the waste so much that the resultant material has a radioactivity much lower than the original natural product.

Energy conservation is a laudable proposition but very few people are prepared to do it – what size car do you drive? Also once China, India, Indonesia etc start to hanker after our living standards, even with conservation I think it is unlikely to achieve a sufficient result. Of course we all must try and I drive a small car and walk a lot.

Alternative energy would be the shot but despite all efforts no-one has yet produced a total solution.

I have never worked in the nuclear industry but I am an engineer and have studied physics to a high University level and worked in the coal fired power industry.

John Howard parades openly to the world as George Bushes lapdog... It seems absolutely absurd that Howard can continue to allow OUR country to be eaten alive by the the Bush Government, who obviously, cares nothing for his own people, and would not give a second thought to the welfare of Australia. Is nobody going to do anything? I hate to sit here casting feeble opinions about these serious events that continue to unfold before us while Howard sells us out to the US! The shame of it. The Australian people sit by and watch Howard embarass us in front of the whole world. It makes me so mad! Why has Howard not been assassinated yet? I understand the whole way of thinking that we don't want to make a martyr out of him, but come on... All you crazy gun wielding wierdo's...somebody take him out and put the Australian people out of their misery.

Mike&natty, I share your concerns, but I don’t see it in such black and white terms. I can understand why Howard has gone out of his way to remain in the good books with the American shrubbery. I hate the fact that we still have troops in Iraq or that we ever did, but I can understand it. The only thing I can’t accept is that Howard hasn’t protested in the strongest possible manner over the treatment of David Hicks and the absolute antidemocratic antihumanitarian hole that is Guantanamo. Surely his really strong relationship with Bush has put him in a position where he can full-forcedly express this outrage. Even if Hicks is a guilty as sin, his treatment by the apparently leading democratic society in the world is unforgivable.

America espouses democratic values with a great fervour….and then simply steps right outside of it when it suits them. Hell, that sucks.

Similarly, I cannot see the issue of uranium exports or the development of nuclear power in Australia in black and white terms. In fact I really struggle with the whole deal. It is a doozy of an issue to come to terms with.

I think there is merit in us developing nuclear power, despite the dangers and poor economics… if it was to progressively replace coal. But let’s face it, it ain’t gonna do that. Coal will continue to be used, and exported and manic rate, for as long as the short-term economics are anywhere near viable. So nuclear power would simply be more power on top of coal, which would serve to facilitate a greater population, a greater demand for energy, greater pressure on all sorts of other resources and on the environment in general, and NOT solve any of our looming massive resource and sustainability issues.

There might be a place for nuclear power, but ONLY if it is part of an overall genuine and urgent sustainability strategy.

Why has Howard not been assassinated yet?

This is outrageous, I detest the slimy piece of frog turd we have as PM but the only way to remove him is via the ballot box, if not our society means nothing.

JWH, GWB, 'Dubblyas' by any other name. Spend some time at ADF bases around the nation (or O/S for that matter) and take a ticket in the lineup of people just waiting to pull the trigger on these clowns.

The great disarming of Australia was the "piece de resistance" of Dr Rebecca Peters. On just how the great conspiracy of Port Arthur was perpetrated, and its authors, will remain forever hidden - unless a member of the inner circle breaks ranks and 'fesses up.

Why was it in March 2005, on his early morning walk along the Esplanade in Darwin, that PM Howard's VIP Protection boys were easily 20 - 30 metres ahead and behind him, and yet I was able to intercept him and go straight up and ask him questions on what his government is doing about the compensation of Kylie Russell (widow of Sgt Andrew Russell). His response was to furrow his brows and walk off in a huff.

No bullet proof vest, no effective VIP goons in proximity- doesn't this exude a cool smugness?

Had I truly been the 'ratbag' or 'Noisy Interloper' I am often portrayed as, then Johnny may well be pushing up the daisies as we blog.

No, these di**heads only understand ratings, opinion polls and the ballot boxes. They care nought about you & I, or the troops doing their job wherever.