Inconvenient truth
TOM Biegler's assertion (Talking Point, 11-12/6) that "without nuclear power Australia will be fighting climate change with both hands firmly tied behind its back" is a timely reminder of an inconvenient truth: namely that the only current viable alternative to burning fossil fuels to generate base-load electricity is nuclear power.
What Biegler might have added is that the power source does not have to be uranium. Earlier this year, China announced it was developing a network of thorium-fuelled nuclear reactors, and in view of the federal government's stated objective of a minimum 5 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, there would seem to be a strong case for Australia doing the same.A thorium-fuelled nuclear reactor emits virtually no CO2, produces less than 1 per cent of the waste of a uranium plant of equal magnitude, and cannot "meltdown" as there is no possibility of a chain reaction in this process.
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