Nuclear Politics

The nuclear industry is a global industry. Since the Manhattan Project during World War II to build atomic bombs, an array of physicists from around the world have collaborated to firstly build weapons, then to create a benign face for nuclear weapons manufacturing by encouraging  nuclear power generation.

Too expensive to be viable

In the 1950’s people were told that nuclear power was the way of the future, and that nuclear power would be “too cheap to meter.”  How wrong that assertion was!  It’s one of the most expensive forms of power generation known to humanity, especially if the decommissioning of irradiated nuclear power plants is counted, plus the costs of spectacular accidents like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

A non-solution for Climate Change

The powerful nuclear lobby has the ear of governments, and has re-invented itself to claim that it can help deal with climate change. Wrong:  it’s too slow, too expensive, and very dirty.  And it’s a water guzzler as well.  Behind all that however, is the more sinister fact that there are still 25,000 nuclear weapons which are a threat to all life on this planet.  Getting rid of nuclear weapons is a high priority and Australia should be working hard to promote a Nuclear Weapons Convention to outlaw them forever.