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Small nuclear towers several stories high and 100 meters wide are being considered as an option to replace coal as Australia's energy plans for the future are reviewed. The design is based on nuclear plants used in submarines but with the prime minister of Australia labelling the idea as being 'loopy' it may not get off the ground.
Dr Ziggy Switkowski, former chair of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, told a parliamentary inquiry hearing on August 29 in Sydney that small modular reactors could have a role in powering small towns with populations of about 100,000 to support mining sites and desalination plants.
"On paper, they look terrific," Dr Switkowski said. "They are small and they can be built subsurface. They can be gas cooled, so the demand for water cooling is reduced.
"The nuclear fuel rods are designed as a nuclear battery that needs to be replaced perhaps only every 10 years or so, and the level of radioactive by-product is low."
Dr Switkowski said the capital cost was much lower than the cost of large-scale nuclear.
"All of that, to me, is irresistibly attractive. And the technology starts with proven applications such as nuclear submarines, although obviously there are differences to that," he said.
However, Dr Switkowski said it could take five to 10 years for enough reactors to be rolled out so Australia can assess their feasibility and whether it can make them work.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @08:47AM (8 children)
The aussies lost the great emu war and now think they can pull this off?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @10:53AM (6 children)
Emu War II will be decisive. Aussies will be replaced by emus, dingos, snakes, spiders, crocodiles, etc.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pav on Sunday September 15 2019, @12:53PM (3 children)
Speaking of aggressive birds - it's just coming into magpie season. These birds are corvids and have sharp beaks and claws. I've had injuries ie. bleeding scalp and ears, and unfortunately every year people also get eye injuries. Eye injuries are less common, probably because magpies generally won't attack if you look at them. Still, people have lost eyes. This year someone has put up a web app where people can geolocate attacks and injuries [magpiealert.com]. This is useful information as the birds keep a territory ~100-150 metres across.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @05:57PM (1 child)
This is what happens when you take pellet guns away from the children.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday September 16 2019, @05:30AM
But they didn't [nsw.gov.au].
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Monday September 16 2019, @05:32AM
And, in this morning's news, a cyclist in NSW died [smh.com.au] (head injuries from hitting fence post) after being swooped.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @04:45PM (1 child)
We're going to build a fence, and we'll make the emus pay for it!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 15 2019, @11:34PM
Dingo didn't pay [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:11PM
You think that's bad, you should see how our government handles the internet.