It’s lights out, wrote Dr. Graham Pinn, as Australia’s unreliable electricity supply could have life-threatening significance if nuclear energy is not adopted.
As Australian electricity costs increase and the reliability of supply declines the failure to use the country’s natural resources is increasingly irrational, it is based on ideology rather than practicality.
When ignoring the cataclysmic predictions of the Global Warming Brigade, using coal and nuclear power are sensible options for this country, if there is concern about increasing carbon dioxide levels then nuclear power is, even more, the logical solution.
Whenever this suggestion is made, ignorant scare-mongering is used to enforce this possible threat, few understand the different types of radiation or their effects. As a result, Australia is the only G20 country with a ban on nuclear energy.
Belatedly, a Senate Enquiry in 2019 and current renewed Coalition interest suggest it is time to change the legislation which made it illegal in Australia in 1998.
To put nuclear power in perspective it is necessary to review the history of its development.
Albert Einstein was the first to consider nuclear fission as an option to release energy. His famous equation “E equals MC squared”, suggested that splitting the atom and reducing its mass (M) could release massive amounts of energy (E); (the C in the equation being the speed of light).
Einstein was born in Germany but left to study in Switzerland. With Hitler’s ascent to power and his own Jewish origins, he never returned to Germany but instead immigrated to the US and became a citizen. With his revolutionary theories and background, he was able to warn the American authorities of the wartime potential of nuclear fission research by Germany.
Einstein supported the construction of the first nuclear reactor, built in 1940, using uranium as fuel. As well as Americans, scientists from the UK and Canada were also involved in the development.
Subsequently, under the hugely expensive Manhattan Project, the program was expanded to produce weapons-grade uranium for the production of a bomb. Initial testing was carried out in New Mexico in July 1945; the Trinity test site is now a major tourist attraction.