http://www.abc.net.au/news/opinion/items/200611/s1794083.htmDr Ziggy Switkowski’s report on uranium mining, processing and nuclear energy will not provide much ammunition for those promoting nuclear power as the silver bullet solution for climate change.
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In the US alone more than $115 billion in subsidies has been used to prop up this underperforming sector – hardly clean, green and cheap power.
A carbon tax or emissions trading system would increase the price of fossil fuel electricity, but it will not address the full costs of nuclear power. These include huge construction and insurance costs, de-commissioning and perpetual nuclear waste management liabilities and the reality that all nuclear facilities are potential terrorist targets.
Even if the report’s most ambitious reactor construction targets were realised – with 25 Australian communities living in the shadow of a new nuclear reactor – our greenhouse emissions would be reduced by less than 20 per cent – not even a third of the reduction needed by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change.
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