Talk:The Australia Institute identifies ideal sites for nuclear power stations

This article is part of the Australian Federal politics project, a project of Wikinews Australia. Everyone is welcome to expand this article, however you are encouraged to use original sources where possible.

Original Reporting

Written from The Australia Institute's media release on their report and the Victorian nuclear prohibition act. The daily telegraph was used to source the claim that TAI is leftist. The ABC article was used to source the Port Stephens mayor's comments - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 02:39, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I attributed the leftist claim to "some" when I rephrased the sentence containing the claim - otherwise, the claim is stated passively. For clarity, you may want to attribute the claim directly - or just leave it attributed to "some". Those are my thoughts. Karen 07:58, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I would leave it as some as more than just the Tele say this about TAI - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 08:39, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Removed photo

I removed a photo which I considered both to be irrelevant, and to have an editorializing caption. The photo depicted a random nuclear power plant with high cooling towers, obviously a hideous sight on a coast. Except that, as far as I know, a plant may not need those big cooling towers if it has access to a very big body of water... such as the ocean.

Unless one has access to the precise kind of power plant that would be built, writing "such as this one" is misleading anyway. Submarine 21:21, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough, although I would assume that the cooling towers would still be needed. I was just trying to illustrate what a "typical" nuclear power plant looks like for our Aussie readers. Alot of us have never seen one. Second, Delta Electricity's coal fired power plant at Lake Munmorah is on the coast and has huge cooling towers (and does look hideous) - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 22:35, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes Deltas Munmorah plant has two rather large (230 foot) stacks, which are NOT cooling towers?! They are stacks for the exhaust from the boiler. Since Munmorah is on the coast they use the local lakes as a cooling body, and thers no need for cooling towers...places like Wallarawang require cooling towers but only because they have no large body of water to use. The two reasons the coal fired plants are built on the central coast is their beside major coal seams and large bodies of water....you really must get you facts right before writing what you think? Well thats what i think anyway. Also when the plants were built they were in areas that werent going to be heavily populated to ensure it wasnt such an eyesore, but the local government just builds houses closer and closer......if you ask me a power station is a work of art and an amazing one at that...nuclear power while quite simple is scary to me?

Nuclear Power Plant in Australia

Nuclear Power Plants in Australia, what next make it compulsory to smoke when you reach eighteen just to get more toxins into our lungs. There shouldn't even be a Nuclear Power plant in Australia. Did you see what happened in Chernobyl, what if the same things happen here. The majority of People who want power plants in Australia won't be affected by them because they're mainly adults, the future generations will be. Think of what your going to do to you children when there your age today, birth deformities, mutation, people being exposed to radiation and Health risks.Do you want this for your children, for their children to come.Would you want a nuclear power plant in australia if you were at that age and you had your whole life ahead of you, knowing what risks there were of a meltdown?

--203.52.130.139 00:02, 23 August 2006 (UTC)DMH

Not many people realize the physics behind nuclear power plants. They only base their assumptions and fears on what the media tell them and they don't know why it happens. Everyone gets exposed to a certain degree of radiation, like sunlight and whatnot. It's all about moderation. It is said that workers in nuclear power plants get affected by not getting enough radiation because their workplaces are so guarded from any kind of radiation, i.e. a certain amount of sun radiation is good for us. As for whether Australia should have nuclear power plants or not, it's certainly a point that the reduction of CO2 gas in our atmosphere is indeed very significant. In the end, Australians should know the full implications of what a nuclear reactor in Australian land means, and what the physics behind it is.

SOLAR, NOT NUCLEAR

There really is no need for nuclear power plants in Australia because there is a simple mature technology available that can deliver huge amounts of clean energy without any of the headaches of nuclear power.

I refer to 'concentrating solar power' (CSP), the technique of concentrating sunlight using mirrors to create heat, and then using the heat to raise steam and drive turbines and generators, just like a conventional power station. It is possible to store solar heat in melted salt or other substance so that electricity generation may continue through the night or on cloudy days. This technology has been generating electricity successfully in California since 1985 and half a million Californians currently get their electricity from this source. CSP plants are now being planned or built in many parts of the world.

CSP works best in hot deserts and, of course, these are not always nearby! But with transmission losses at only about 3% per 1000 km, it is entirely feasible and economic to transmit solar electricity throughout Australia from the Australian desert using highly-efficient 'HVDC' transmission lines. A small portion of the Australian desert would be sufficient to meet all of the country's needs for electricity.

Waste heat from electricity generation in a CSP plant can be used to create fresh water by desalination of sea water: a very useful by-product in arid regions.

Researchers in Sydney are working on improvements to the technology to make it even more effective. See: www.physics.usyd.edu.au/apphys/ste.html .

In the 'TRANS-CSP' report commissioned by the German government, it is estimated that CSP electricity, imported from North Africa and the Middle East, could become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe, including the cost of transmission. A large-scale HVDC transmission grid has also been proposed by Airtricity as a means of optimising the use of wind power throughout Europe.

Further information about CSP may be found at www.trec-uk.org.uk and www.trecers.net . Copies of the TRANS-CSP report may be downloaded from www.trec-uk.org.uk/reports.htm . The many problems associated with nuclear power are summarised at www.mng.org.uk/green_house/no_nukes.htm .