Energy & Nuclear

1. Nuclear – update

Some outrage followed Bob Carr’s suggestion we should debate nuclear power as an energy option.

The Australian today has a piece by Amanda Hodge that includes:

“It’s an attempt to make the argument a coal versus nuclear debate to soften people’s resistance to another coal-fired power station, when the debate should be about coal versus renewable options,” one observer says. Clive Hamilton from the Australia Institute agrees.
As executive director of the independent think tank, Hamilton is a keen observer of social and environmental public policy and says Carr’s record on the environment is mixed. While he has gained significant ground on the traditional “green” environmental issues, such as forests and national parks, he has had little success on the “brown” issues: industrial environmental concerns, such as air pollution and climate change.

The Australian also has an opinion piece on the virtues of nuclear energy by Leslie Kemeny with the comment that:

For many countries the reliability, safety, economy and greenhouse gas-free operation of nuclear plants has made nuclear energy inevitable. Unfortunately for Australia, which supplies 13 countries with uranium fuel, the technology has not been properly considered.

The paradox of a nation endowed with more than 40 per cent of the world’s economically recoverable uranium fuel but which strenuously resists its use in its domestic energy policies bemuses the global community. This is especially true of countries such as France and Japan, who manage to minimise their own greenhouse emissions through the use of Australian uranium.

And also an opinion piece by Bill Kininmonth that begins:

AS Australia develops policies for its diverse energy resources there is a need to ensure that the policies are based on sound economics, technologies and science.

Unfortunately, it is representation of the science of climate change where there is most uncertainty, including a fair degree of misrepresentation.

2. Pilliga-Goonoo – Update

According to Farm Online:

The NSW Government has offered timber mills in north-western NSW access to a further 15,000 hectares of high quality cypress forest.

This is a result of protests against its decision to lock up 350,000 ha of the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion.

I wrote about these forests, and environmentalism as a faith, for Online Opinion for World Environment Day. My piece included the comment:

We live in a secular society and value evidence. Yet it is the naive and romantic concept of nature that very often underpins public policy decision making on environmental issues in Australia. For example, when the NSW government announced a ban on logging in the Pilliga-Goonoo forests it described the decision as achieving “permanent conservation” of these iconic forests. In reality without active management there can be no conservation of these forests. The forests are less than 150-years-old and have grown-up with a timber industry that has tended the cypress and Eucalyptus creating tall trees and also habitat for iconic species such as koalas and barking owls.

3. Information Request

Jennifer, I need information on the transpiration rate of native grass and the depth that native grass would draw water from. Regards Gary

According to ABC Online, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has called for a debate on the benefits and risks of nuclear power as an alternative energy source.

“The world’s got to debate whether uranium-derived power is more dangerous than coal,” he said.

“Coal is looking very dangerous – there ought to be a debate.”

Mr Carr says a new energy source needs to be found because alternative power sources such as wind, solar and hydrogen are not yet viable options.

“You could have a wind farm across all of outback New South Wales,” he said. “It’d kill every kookaburra but it wouldn’t provide the base-load [power] we need.”

The big news this morning is that exit polls suggest Tony Blair will be re-elected to lead Britain for another 5 years. What does this mean for the environment?

Blair clearly cares about the environment and is concerned by what he sees as a situation of general and accelerating deterioration in the global environment. He has spoken about the need to “bring the environment, economic development and social justice together” and is particularly concerned about climate change.

During the election the Greens made much of the possibility that a future Labour government would commit Britain to a “nuclear future“.

The UK apparently has 14 ‘ageing’ nuclear power stations and Blair has not ruled out the possibility of a new generation of nuclear power stations on the basis that nuclear power is almost ‘carbon neutral’ and would help Britain meet its Kyoto targets.

ALSO TODAY (sent in from blog readers) …

Greenpeace in Court:
This week, opening statements were heard in Alaskan District Court in a case that charges Greenpeace with violating environmental law. Greenpeace is charged with criminal negligence by failing to have the proper oil spill response paperwork during an anti-logging campaign.

Global Dimming:
Today’s New York Times has an article about global dimming: “I think what could have happened is the dimming between the 1960’s and 1980’s counteracted the greenhouse effect,” Dr. Wild said. “When the dimming faded, the effects of the greenhouse gases became more evident. There is no masking by the dimming any more.”
A reader of this blog sent the link with the comment, “Actually, it is a clear contradiction, showing that nature (the Sun), not rising CO2, is responsible for Hansen’s ‘energy imbalance’.”