The Nuclear Debate

Debate is a misuse of the word. When John Howard stands in parliament and does his best to project an image of a foolish opposition party for not entertaining the prospect of nuclear power plants, because they are “the greenest and cleanest energy source of all”, his body becomes rigormortisly rigid spasmodically pacing the floor, his voice audio becomes nervously broken and his little baboon face glows satanic red. That’s because he knows, we know, he is full of shit.

His efforts to link nuclear power plants with combating global warming are transparently juvenile. “Trying to reduce the environmental impact of energy consumption by using nuclear instead of coal based resources is like attempting to give up cigarettes by taking up crack.” Sorry, can’t remember where I saw this quote.

While electricity generated from nuclear power does not directly emit carbon dioxide it uses vast amounts of fossil fuels, from mining, milling, treatment, enrichment, fuel reprocessing, reactor construction, reactor decommissioning and all related transports. Uranium mining is one of the most CO 2 intensive industrial operations known and therefore C0 2 emissions will actually rise as a result of reactor power plants being commissioned.

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