Ted O’Brien Says It’s Time To Talk Nuclear (Again!)

Nuclear power booster Ted O’Brien has launched a website and survey in an effort to see his small modular reactor (SMR) dreams come true in Australia.

Ted O’Brien is currently the Federal Member for Fairfax and Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy. He’s big on nuclear energy. Among his past activities, Mr. O’Brien chaired the House Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy. In 2019, he stated:

“Australia should say a definite ‘No’ to old nuclear technologies but a conditional ‘Yes’ to new and emerging technologies such as small modular reactors.”

This was in relation to the Committee’s report on a way forward for nuclear technology in Australia, which SQ’s Ronald dissected here.

Mr. O’Brien has a penchant for small modular reactor (SMR) technology, which essentially involves building bits of small nuclear power stations off-site and putting them together on-site.

The fact there are no terrestrial-based SMR power stations commercially operating aside, a recent study out of Stanford University suggests most small modular reactor designs are inferior to conventional nuclear reactors in several very important aspects. But even ignoring that and various other issues, there is a simple reason Australian power stations will never go nuclear – it’s simply too expensive.

In relation to SMR tech specifically, last month we reported a proposed project in the USA appears to be following the trend set by bigger plants planned or under construction – increasingly pricey power. And that looks likely to happen even with a fistful of fed subsidies thrown at it.

Time to Talk Nuclear Launched

But regardless, Ted O’Brien has continued to whip this dead horse with the launch of his “Time to Talk Nuclear” campaign. He states it’s a program of community engagement putting “the Australian people at the centre of a national discussion on advanced nuclear technology”.

Central to the campaign is the web site, which has an interesting backstory and includes a survey with just 3 questions:

• What do you think could be the benefits of nuclear energy in Australia?
• What concerns (if any) do you have about nuclear energy?
• What questions do you have about nuclear energy?

The web site is pretty lean – it doesn’t have a lot of information at the moment. Among the content available is this statement:

“Nuclear power is the only low-cost, reliable and emissions-free source of energy that can back up renewables at night or at low wind speeds.”

Nuclear power certainly isn’t low-cost and while low emissions, isn’t emissions-free. As for reliability, recently 26 of France’s 56 reactors were offline for maintenance or repairs.

CSIRO’s GenCost 2021-22 report indicated renewables are the cheapest sources of electricity generation in Australia, and that’s including costs associated with energy storage and transmission. No nukes required.

In relation to SMR projects, that same report mentioned projects not happening locally this decade (even without the nuclear power ban in Australia) “given the technology’s commercial immaturity and high cost”.

We can certainly spend more time and resources on conversations about nuclear power. But what we really need is a laser-focus on rolling out renewables including wind and solar energy; backed by storage and appropriate transmission and management infrastructure. Anything else is just a distraction – and given where things are at; a potentially very problematic one.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/talk-time-nuclear-mb2739/