A tried-and-true tactic the Tories use is the wedge.

I would propose using a similar tactic against the uranium-lovers - suggest an alternative to uranium power in the form of fusion power. I know, it comes across as pie in the sky, but I think it will give the tech-head uranium sympathisers something to ponder. Why commit to all that nuclear waste when there may be a better way, without any long-lived waste at all. In the meantime, use solar and wind power.

The same delaying tactic was used in the US to crush the electric car - the delusional "Hydrogen Economy".

Actually, I am serious about feasible fusion power in a decade or two:

see

http://www.focusfusion.org

and this, a fascinating tech talk at Google on a fusion project the US Navy ran for 11 years, with promising results:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606

Both these fusion experimenters think the ITER Tokamak is just a massive boondoggle - there are better approaches to nuclear fusion.

Excellent, Trevbus

The only reason that the US and other country went to nuclear power using uranium in the late 1950s was because the end result would procure radioactive material for nuclear BOMBS... The safer alternative is Thorium... But thorium does not create fissile material when used in nuclear power plants. it does not produce plutonium. Thus the uranium lobby won the day in the US, in the USSR, in the UK, in France, in Israel....

Anytime someone argue for the "safe" use of uranium for generating power, one need to realise that the end result, which won't appear as "waste" is plutonium, the use of which is either in fast breeder reactors — thus called fast breeders because not so strangely they produce more plutonium than they consume due to the fact that uranium is used to "slow down the reaction of plutonium... and that the uranium shield converts to plutonium "faster" than uranium in normal nuclear plants.

Imagine 25000 nuclear plants would produce enough plutonium to blow up the planet near to a million times over...

A letter in the Sydney Morning Herald (27/11/06)
More power to plutonium

As the EnergyScience Coalition of scientists says, 25 nuclear power stations would produce a lot of plutonium ("Nuclear power would generate tonnes of weapons fuel", November 25-26). However, it would contain more than 30 per cent non-fissile plutonium-240. The highest concentration of the 240 isotope that has ever been present in plutonium successfully exploded in a bomb was about 10 per cent. This explosion required the highest level of bomb-making expertise in the US. On the other hand, plutonium is a valuable fuel material. If it is recycled into power-generating reactors, the presence of plutonium-240 is not a disadvantage because it absorbs neutrons to produce fissile plutonium-241.

Dr D.J. Higson Paddington

Gus:

Not quite as simple my dear Dr D.J.Higson

from Physical, Nuclear, and Chemical, Properties of Plutonium

IEER's on-line glossary.


Only two plutonium isotopes have commercial and military applications. Plutonium-238, which is made in nuclear reactors from neptunium-237, is used to make compact thermoelectric generators; plutonium-239 is used for nuclear weapons and for energy; plutonium-241, although fissile, (see next paragraph) is impractical both as a nuclear fuel and a material for nuclear warheads. Some of the reasons are far higher cost , shorter half-life, and higher radioactivity than plutonium-239. Isotopes of plutonium with mass numbers 240 through 242 are made along with plutonium-239 in nuclear reactors, but they are contaminants with no commercial applications. In this fact sheet we focus on civilian and military plutonium (which are interchangeable in practice--see Table 5), which consist mainly of plutonium-239 mixed with varying amounts of other isotopes, notably plutonium-240, -241, and -242.

Plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile materials. This means that they can be split by both slow (ideally zero-energy) and fast neutrons into two new nuclei (with the concomitant release of energy) and more neutrons. Each fission of plutonium-239 resulting from a slow neutron absorption results in the production of a little more than two neutrons on the average. If at least one of these neutrons, on average, splits another plutonium nucleus, a sustained chain reaction is achieved.

The even isotopes, plutonium-238, -240, and -242 are not fissile but yet are fissionable--that is, they can only be split by high energy neutrons. Generally, fissionable but non-fissile isotopes cannot sustain chain reactions; plutonium-240 is an exception to that rule.

Poll: 78% oppose nuclear Japan
Although officially meant for self-defence, Japan's military budget is one of the largest in the world

Seventy-eight per cent of Japanese citizens are opposed to the country acquiring nuclear weapons, a poll has found.

The poll, published in the Mainichi newspaper on Monday, surveyed 989 respondents, 14 per cent of whom said they favoured the country going nuclear.

The rest were undecided.

However, 61 per cent of those surveyed said they supported a public debate on Japan's nuclear policy.

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Gus: remember, folks, that the reason nations went the nuclear power route is to make nuclear bombs. There are in the vicinity of 60,000 nuclear bombs worldwide. on average each is able to destroy half of New York, from Queens to smithereens on the other side. Some bombs are so powerful they can destroy 10 New York and its suburbs in one blast... This is not fiction. This is a rocket in a silo pointed at a real target and numerically sequenced so that in the worst case scenario, should something drastic happen to a people, the countdown becomes automated and annihilate the other. By going nuclear power the nations are toying with the next load of bombs, even if treaties or agreements are signed... Remember that even in the case of polonium falling in the wrong hands, we'll blame the Russians' failed accountability of stocks but the same applies to the Americans, who have a few "holes" in their stocktaking and who are presently "modernising" their nuclear arsenal to include nuclear "bunker busters" — type of bombs not included in the "reduction of nuclear armaments"...

Greenpeace angry after nuclear waste transported through Sydney

A shipment of used nuclear material has been transported through Sydney overnight.

Spent nuclear fuel rods from the Lucas Heights reactor have been trucked during the night to a ship docked at Port Botany.

The covert operation involved police, helicopters and firefighters to monitor the operation and direct the 10 trucks carrying the nuclear material.

Greenpeace says there were a dozen police boats and three Greenpeace boats surrounding the specialised nuclear ship carrier, the Seabird.

Greenpeace mounted a protest, which campaigner Steve Campbell says is about highlighting the issue of nuclear waste.

"We're here to warn the Australian community that if the Government pushes through with its plan to build nuclear reactors around Australia, that it's going to mean a massive escalation in this kind of dangerous nuclear waste transport through Australian communities," he said.

Mr Campbell says the public should be told when nuclear material is being transported through their suburbs.

"Residents have not been told of this nuclear transport," he said.

From our ABC

Climate change report proves Aust should go nuclear: Howard

The Prime Minister, John Howard, says a new United Nations (UN) report on climate change is further proof that Australia should be looking towards nuclear energy.

The UN report paints a bleak picture of of higher sea levels and temperatures this century. It urges the world's governments to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but Mr Howard says looking to solar and wind energy is not the solution. Mr Howard says Australia is taking the appropriate measures to reduce greenhouse gasses following the release of the UN report. While the Opposition wants to focus on renewable energy such as solar and wind, the Prime Minister says this is not the only solution. Mr Howard says all options must be considered, including nuclear energy. "There is no point in the face of such a comprehensive challenge of ruling out consideration that may over time provide part of the solution," he said. "Let's be realistic - you can only run on fossil fuel or in time, nuclear power." Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australia can do little but learn to adapt to the changes.

But Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says that is a ridiculous position to take and that Australia is not powerless to act in response to the report.

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Gus: No Mr Howard the report DOESN'T prove that nuclear power is the answer... It proves we are using too much fossil fuels. Nuclear power is too costly, plus factoring decommissioning and it is to dangerous as it provides the fuel for bombs even if Mr Flannery proposes "Australiams must become FORCEFUL NUCLEAR PACIFISTS"... That's is idiocy and denial of the greater most dangerous risks.

First it was public bicycles he was bringing to the streets of London. Now Mayor Boris Johnson is looking at pinching another green travel idea from the French – a public electric car hire scheme.

The project would allow casual car users to pick up a publicly-owned, battery-powered, zero-carbon vehicle in one part of the city and easily drop it off in another.

Mr Johnson says it would help make London the "electric capital of Europe". His officials are studying plans to introduce a similar scheme in Paris next year called Autolib – a brainchild of the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë.

Autolib will see 4,000 electric cars sited across Paris and its suburbs, which drivers will be able to use at any time for a charge.

The scheme follows the city's hugely successful Vélib – an on-street bicycle hire scheme. Mr Johnson, a cycling enthusiast, will launch his own version of that in London in May 2010.

But the Conservative Mayor has now developed a similar enthusiasm for electric cars, and has set up a working group – the London Electric Vehicle Partnership – to encourage the car industry to speed the delivery of new technology, and increase support for drivers of electric cars in the capital.

http://j.mp/DetroitElectrics

 

The Canberra Electric Vehicle Festival was held on the lawns of Old Parliament House, Parkes Place, Canberra, on 18 September 2010. The festival was organised jointly by CanberraEV, the Canberra branch of the Australian electric Vehicle association (AEVA), and the ACT Electric Vehicle Council. Two Detroit Electric vintage vehicles featured at the festival...