Hello and welcome, dear listener.
Speaker:Yes, the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast, episode 433, coming
Speaker:to you on the 24th of June, 2024.
Speaker:I'm Trevor, aka The Iron Fist.
Speaker:With me as always, Joe the Tech Guy.
Speaker:How are you, Joe?
Speaker:Evening all.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We don't have Scott.
Speaker:Scott is working hard this evening.
Speaker:So keeping that private school accounts, uh, keeping those private school accounts.
Speaker:In order, no doubt, making sure that every government dollar is
Speaker:extracted as much as possible.
Speaker:I think that's what he's up to.
Speaker:Anyway, uh, Scott, good morning to you as you're listening to us on your morning
Speaker:walk, which will effectively be tomorrow.
Speaker:Well, dear listener, I reckon we'll probably just do an episode on Peter
Speaker:Dutton's nuclear Now I don't want to say policy, folly, folly, thought bubble, it
Speaker:is an exaggeration to call this a policy and the ruckus that it's caused and let's
Speaker:just talk about it and it's so instructive of where our politics is at, where our,
Speaker:our population is at in its ability to understand topics and its tribalism.
Speaker:And, you know, it's really going to be a good examination of our capacity as
Speaker:a community to call out bullshit when we see it, call out obvious crap, and
Speaker:if we can't do that on what is a really simple decision, then, Lord help us,
Speaker:Joe, um, maybe not the best expression.
Speaker:We saw this in 2016 with Trump, didn't we?
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:what are you thinking exactly there?
Speaker:The
Speaker:more egregious the lie, the more the press were falling over themselves to repeat it.
Speaker:Yes, yeah.
Speaker:So, let's get something straight right from the get go with nuclear energy.
Speaker:Joe and I were just talking about this prior to going live.
Speaker:In certain countries, it may well be a very good decision.
Speaker:to fire up and create nuclear reactors.
Speaker:Like it may make perfect sense if you don't have the ability to use wind
Speaker:turbines and, and solar energy and you don't have access to those things.
Speaker:And your other peculiar circumstances of industry or other requirements
Speaker:might make it a sensible thing.
Speaker:But not here.
Speaker:I, I think 60 years ago maybe that was the case.
Speaker:I don't even think he in Europe these days.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I, I, I just, so I, you know, I'm not against nuclear power in that sense.
Speaker:Like I'm completely agnostic about it in the sense I don't have
Speaker:particular fears about danger.
Speaker:I don't have, I, I grew up in the shadow of nuclear power station.
Speaker:Yep, I don't have particular fears about the waste storage,
Speaker:particularly in Australia with fairly stable, um, you know, we
Speaker:don't have earthquakes and whatnot.
Speaker:It's just the economics of it.
Speaker:It's so obvious that our economics means that it doesn't make sense.
Speaker:And that's the incredible part about all this.
Speaker:Um, we'll see where we get to.
Speaker:You were about to say something else then, or not?
Speaker:Oh, it was just, um, there was something about one of the power stations,
Speaker:because they're talking about converting some of the power, the coal fired
Speaker:stations, sites, uh, of the seven that have been picked, and one of them,
Speaker:it was mentioned, was actually in Australia's highest area of earthquakes.
Speaker:Oh, was it?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it wasn't a particularly good choice, but I think it's still relatively low
Speaker:compared to Japan, which does have.
Speaker:nuclear and despite Fukushima, uh, the actual impact to the, um, the
Speaker:population has been relatively little, given that they've been running nuclear
Speaker:power plants for what, 60, 70 years?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's, it's an amazing sort of case study that we can use on
Speaker:the state of Australian politics, looking at this whole, um, issue.
Speaker:So, so, um, . Before we get onto that, Joe, just a quick bit of homework.
Speaker:I did a a, a video last week about Joe Biden and the Parachuters and how he
Speaker:sort of wandered off to the side and to
Speaker:talk to another, to a guy who was backing up a shoot.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And which was the
Speaker:video that you showed
Speaker:kind of Yeah.
Speaker:The video was kind of, there are videos going around that
Speaker:are kind of clipped and right.
Speaker:So the spokespeople for Biden are saying that, that these videos have been altered
Speaker:and they're cheap fakes and that there was a perfectly good explanation for him for
Speaker:the way he wandered off from the crowd and
Speaker:What did you think?
Speaker:Is it still,
Speaker:it's still an odd behavior.
Speaker:He does look like a dazed old man when he's guided back.
Speaker:Yes Um, I don't think it was quite as bad as was made out by The right wing press.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But I think they're both in their dotage.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, so some of the videos, I'm not sure the one I showed, um, whether
Speaker:it showed the guy, it did show the guy packing his parachute.
Speaker:It was certainly odd behaviour and there are some videos which are edited in
Speaker:that they cut off some of the vision.
Speaker:But in any event, I think, uh, Joe is sliding into a type of dementia
Speaker:that doesn't look particularly good.
Speaker:So anyway, just mention that as an aside as a bit of homework.
Speaker:Um, thanks for, um, He wouldn't be the first
Speaker:president to die in office.
Speaker:How many have died in office?
Speaker:Um, FDR at the very least.
Speaker:I think there have been, uh, what's his name, Lincoln was assassinated.
Speaker:Yes, Kennedy was assassinated, yeah.
Speaker:I think
Speaker:there was another one that was assassinated, wasn't
Speaker:there?
Speaker:Don't know, but um
Speaker:Further back in time.
Speaker:Yeah, certainly Reagan was in a dementia type state towards the end and was
Speaker:relying on cue cards and things like that.
Speaker:And, um, it was just being shuffled along as an old man.
Speaker:So
Speaker:he was an actor.
Speaker:He was used to it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alison's in the chat room.
Speaker:Hello Alison and Landon Hardbottom is there and John Simmons as well.
Speaker:So good on you folks.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Let's talk a bit.
Speaker:Um, This whole Dutton and his nuclear thought bubble.
Speaker:Ah, Joe, I've been listening to different arguments as people mount them on left
Speaker:wing or even neutral sort of sides, thinking ABC here, thinking Labor Party
Speaker:members as they're talking about it.
Speaker:One of the things that came up was that there was a sort of initially
Speaker:Labor was concentrating on the dangers of nuclear and there were memes
Speaker:being passed around showing mutations of people and things like that.
Speaker:And that just made it easy for the pro Dutton camp to say, stupid Labor,
Speaker:raising unnecessary fear mongering.
Speaker:This is a safe technology.
Speaker:It was, it was an arc of.
Speaker:You know, of all the things you could complain about with his
Speaker:policy, that was way down the list.
Speaker:And I watched, uh, the 7.
Speaker:30 report.
Speaker:Two episodes where they were, um, sort of dealing with this topic.
Speaker:And, um, Basically, in the two episodes on the 7.
Speaker:30 report on ABC, there was no mention of the levelised cost of energy report
Speaker:showing that nuclear is expensive in Australia compared to the other options.
Speaker:That would be
Speaker:too useful.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:What we got was old men living in the electorates where there's currently coal
Speaker:fired stations That would be the likely spots for nuclear power stations, and
Speaker:this would create jobs in their community.
Speaker:You do know what generates large levels of radiation in the community, don't you?
Speaker:What's that?
Speaker:Coal fired power stations.
Speaker:Yeah, right.
Speaker:No, I didn't, but it doesn't surprise me, right?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Coal emits radiation?
Speaker:Coal has small amounts of radiation in it, and as you burn it off, uh,
Speaker:the small specks of radioactive dust go up the chimney and fall
Speaker:out in the surrounding area.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So there are actually higher levels of radiation around a coal
Speaker:fired power station than there are outside a nuclear power station.
Speaker:Well, all these 7.
Speaker:30 reports didn't care, Joe.
Speaker:They just went to the, to these, um, well, they're really
Speaker:rural areas, I guess, I guess.
Speaker:And, and found old men and said, what do you reckon?
Speaker:Would you be happy with a nuclear power site here?
Speaker:And guys with only a decade or two left in their lifespans, still
Speaker:running businesses, were going, yeah, I'd be happy to have one here.
Speaker:And because Joe, because they wanted the jobs, they wanted the
Speaker:economy, they wanted the, um, the infrastructure, the spending, they
Speaker:wanted people to stay in their community.
Speaker:And they had no idea of the relative cost of nuclear versus renewables.
Speaker:If it was
Speaker:the right technology, I wouldn't have a problem with nuclear.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The problem is it's not the right technology.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But these guys were seeing it from the point of view of, well our
Speaker:community could use some jobs.
Speaker:And if this is offering jobs, then great.
Speaker:They were totally without any knowledge of the merits in terms
Speaker:of, of the cost compared to other.
Speaker:I do think that's been the other problem, is we haven't offered a viable answer
Speaker:for the communities that are going to be hit by the shutting down of coal mining.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We haven't said, here is our plan for the future, this is how we move to renewables,
Speaker:these are the jobs we're going to create.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:Uh, this is how we're going to take your expertise and leverage it.
Speaker:Yeah, like maybe construct, uh, solar farms, uh, wind farms, um, uh, the,
Speaker:the water dams that are required, you know, the lower dam, the upper
Speaker:dam for the sort of the storage.
Speaker:Yeah, the pumped hydro.
Speaker:These sorts of things could be done maybe in those areas if they're
Speaker:suitable, but you know what?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:If the areas just aren't suitable for that, then they're just not suitable.
Speaker:If it's flat, if it's not windy, um, maybe it's just not suitable.
Speaker:Um, and you have to move.
Speaker:Like sometimes people just have to move.
Speaker:It happens, it happens everywhere.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ah.
Speaker:But there are other things.
Speaker:We can look at, um, green hydrogen.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:Um, So, so we can be a, a major source of green hydrogen that we
Speaker:can sell to the rest of the world.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Uh, and we can also grow biodiesel.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It may not happen in those electorates.
Speaker:It might have to be in other electorates for other reasons, but certainly overall
Speaker:that's, that's the possibilities.
Speaker:But,
Speaker:but I think regional areas.
Speaker:don't necessarily, even if it's not the same regional, it's not
Speaker:that everyone's going to be forced into the cities or whatever.
Speaker:Yes, a lot of that stuff, you're right, could definitely be in the regions.
Speaker:But Joe, just cost money, money, money, like when it comes to elections,
Speaker:the famous Clinton line was, you know, it's the economy stupid.
Speaker:Well, when it comes to a range of, of, Uh, energy sources.
Speaker:The fact that, the fact that the renewables are so much cheaper than
Speaker:nuclear should have been the first, second, third and last thing that
Speaker:every advocate should have said to these people because the people
Speaker:who are against this, Joe, money's their, usually their main motivation.
Speaker:Like.
Speaker:Yeah, but again, um.
Speaker:We, we come to the fact that renewables aren't 24 hour a day.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:Uh, and I don't think it's been explained adequately to the public
Speaker:how we can have a solely renewable system that can cope 24 hours a
Speaker:day, seven days a week, 365 a year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think that's the, that's the big missing piece is people are
Speaker:going, but what about my base load?
Speaker:And I, I have seen people, um, talking.
Speaker:Uh, very, very persuasively about that.
Speaker:The problem is these conversations are not being held in front
Speaker:of the average citizen.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:We've talked about it here.
Speaker:We've gone through it and talked about Pumped Hydro and various reports that are
Speaker:available that make it perfectly feasible.
Speaker:And it's, um, it's a great system.
Speaker:And that sort of information, if you tell it to people, their eyes just pop out of
Speaker:their heads and go, I talk to people, you know, old boomers around here and say,
Speaker:you realise of course that renewables are so much cheaper than nuclear.
Speaker:And they just have no idea.
Speaker:Nobody's ever, from the information sources they have, they have no idea.
Speaker:And also They're taking their experiences.
Speaker:I mean, obviously Australia is an incredibly sunny country, but yeah,
Speaker:uh, we get an average of eight hours of sun a day in Brisbane, but that's,
Speaker:that's only a third of the day.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, but what people don't realize is between Tasmania and the
Speaker:mainland are the Roaring Forties.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:where the wind is so consistent Yep.
Speaker:That's sailors before the age of steam.
Speaker:regularly moved around the world using the wind.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You could run hydro, sorry not hydro, uh, wind there for probably
Speaker:60 70 percent of the time.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Um, so the wind is, yeah, the wind is going to blow in some part
Speaker:of Australia most of the time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So, um, I'm going to talk later about an article in the Sydney Morning
Speaker:Herald where Peter Fitzsimmons was interviewing an energy expert about this.
Speaker:But, um, uh, he made a really interesting point about wind power
Speaker:and I'm just going to try and find it here now if I can quickly find
Speaker:it, um, about how much is generated by, um, these offshore wind farms.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:The latest turbines tend to be offshore and the biggest of them are 15 megawatts
Speaker:in size, which provides 150 times more power than the first ones that they had.
Speaker:Just one turbine could power a town with a population of 5, 000 homes.
Speaker:It's incredible, isn't it?
Speaker:And he says here, a single rotation of the blades of a large wind turbine generates
Speaker:the same power as the solar panels on five homes would export in an entire day.
Speaker:These things are huge and their capacity to generate energy is massive.
Speaker:They're offshore.
Speaker:They're out of the way.
Speaker:They're a really good solution.
Speaker:Wind blows at night time.
Speaker:They're an amazing solution in conjunction with all, you know,
Speaker:photovoltaic, solar, and the um, and the storage that we've mentioned before.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, um, when I was back in France at Christmas, um, I was, up at
Speaker:a cliff on the northern part of France, and they've just opened up a brand new
Speaker:wind farm out there that's 496 megawatts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's about the same size as a standard power station.
Speaker:The biggest power station I think here is one, just over a gigawatt.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And this was half.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're quite extraordinary, what's possible.
Speaker:The other thing about this, Joe, that just, It just amazes me that, uh, right
Speaker:wingers, Liberal Party, Rustadons, have, you know, are all for the nuclear
Speaker:because that's what their tribe's for, or their tribe leader has declared.
Speaker:And it goes against the fundamentals of what they normally go for.
Speaker:So it's, it's fully acknowledged by Dutton.
Speaker:That if this nuclear power, I don't want to call it policy, this thought
Speaker:bubble, requires the government to do it.
Speaker:It's not private enterprise.
Speaker:It's going to be a big government bureaucratic operation.
Speaker:And the people in favour of this are normally so pro free enterprise.
Speaker:You know, the market, free enterprise, you can't have government doing stuff
Speaker:because the government's always wasting money, you don't want large bureaucracy,
Speaker:and, and on this issue, those sort of fundamental liberal values are just thrown
Speaker:away, and all of a sudden they're happy to have a big government bureaucratic, um,
Speaker:monster created, building infrastructure that is notoriously corrupt.
Speaker:built over time and over budget.
Speaker:It's so
Speaker:counter to what they would
Speaker:normally
Speaker:want.
Speaker:Well, no, they, they want government funds going to private industry.
Speaker:Oh yes, of course.
Speaker:So this is government funds going to government industry.
Speaker:Well no, so you spin off a private company that's going to have shareholders.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And it's going to be run by Peter Dudden's mates.
Speaker:Of
Speaker:course, it'll be sold off, privatised.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Government will build it and then it'll be privatised.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In the meantime though, just the fundamentals, when they're looking
Speaker:for solutions for things, it's They always talk about the market and free
Speaker:enterprise and, and we've got heaps of free enterprise groups wanting
Speaker:to build renewable sort of options.
Speaker:Um, actually, I think it was, uh, who was it?
Speaker:Monique Ryan said, if only we lived in a country with lots of sparsely
Speaker:populated land, year round sunshine, endless windy coastlines, established
Speaker:solar, hydro and wind industries.
Speaker:And billions of dollars of private investment lined up and ready to go.
Speaker:You know, if only we
Speaker:had that.
Speaker:They've been lined up for a long time, but because of every time the, um, LNP
Speaker:get into power, they screw up whatever renewable incentives are out there.
Speaker:They're just unwilling to invest because they don't know what the
Speaker:next LNP government's going to do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, 40 years ago, we could have had a booming renewable sector.
Speaker:But there's too much money floating around in certain other industries.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, in Crikey, some letters to the editor I think summed it up.
Speaker:There was a guy, Terry O'Hanlon, wrote, All Peter Dutton cares about
Speaker:is appearing to offer an alternative.
Speaker:He doesn't care if it's unrealistic or if there are federal and state laws in place.
Speaker:That'll make it impractical or even impossible.
Speaker:It's likely better for him that way, as he can more easily abandon his nuclear
Speaker:folly after he wins the election.
Speaker:He wants simply to be proposing an alternative something, so he can
Speaker:give the electorate a justification for kicking the current mob out.
Speaker:There's a lot of truth in that.
Speaker:The headache of actually getting this done.
Speaker:is not something that Peter Dutton thinks he's going to have to deal with.
Speaker:No, and I don't think it was.
Speaker:It's also an excuse not to, uh, stop burning coal.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Which realistically is what the LNP and the Murdoch press is all about.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:So even as the
Speaker:coal fired power stations break down, which they are, you know, they're reaching
Speaker:their end of their design lives, um, they want to move to coal seam gas.
Speaker:They don't want renewables.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That is part of it.
Speaker:Another guy, Bill Barnes wrote, Dutton and his strategists have appeared to
Speaker:borrow straight from the Steve Bannon playbook to flood the zone with shit,
Speaker:announce something highly controversial with little detail and sit back and watch
Speaker:the media and other commentators fall over themselves reporting on nothing.
Speaker:That's true too.
Speaker:Trump 2016.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Indeed, just announce shit and step back, and there's no accountability, there's no
Speaker:shame in the world anymore, Joe, so this is why people can get away with this.
Speaker:Jack the Insider on Twitter said, half a trillion dollar energy policy announced
Speaker:with a 20 minute press conference.
Speaker:And a one page press release.
Speaker:He said, I've seen Nigerian email scams with more detail.
Speaker:Dead right.
Speaker:And probably more realistic.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:More believable.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:With the assistance, Joe, of News Corp, who are actively
Speaker:promoting the nuclear idea.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:And the ABC, who are inadvertently promoting it.
Speaker:I think Dutton might pull this off.
Speaker:As in, win over voters, enough.
Speaker:I'm
Speaker:sure.
Speaker:As in, it's depressing, isn't it?
Speaker:I think he might pull it off.
Speaker:And
Speaker:also it gives him an excuse to get out of Paris, because we can't
Speaker:possibly meet Paris in the short term.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So we're going to go completely zero emissions by going nuclear, whilst
Speaker:ignoring that electricity generation isn't all of our carbon emissions.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:I'm going to give some examples of News Corp and the ABC and how they've
Speaker:handled this whole issue, um, One guy, Dean Rosario, again on Twitter
Speaker:said, Peter Dutton could claim the Earth is flat, and the ignoramuses at
Speaker:ABC News would report that as news.
Speaker:Spears and Cavallis would ask Albo, Peter Dutton says the Earth is
Speaker:flat, what's your response to that?
Speaker:It's dead right.
Speaker:They don't stop and say.
Speaker:Hang on a minute, that's complete nonsense.
Speaker:Have you gone crazy?
Speaker:I'm not going to put that to anybody else.
Speaker:You've got to justify this before we start getting other people's opinions on this.
Speaker:It's completely bonkers.
Speaker:Nope, don't get any of that.
Speaker:I think Albanese should just announce a perpetual motion machine that's going
Speaker:to generate lots of energy for nothing.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And, and give as much detail as Mr.
Speaker:Dutton has.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it'll be even cheaper because, you know, it's a perpetual motion machine.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I
Speaker:agree with Alison, it's a
Speaker:scam to protect fossil fuels.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, um, yeah.
Speaker:John says this is not a policy that will get the teal seats back.
Speaker:We can only hope.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:That will not.
Speaker:Um, um, Sue says people complain about wind farms next to them as well.
Speaker:It is a big deal in Port Stephens at the moment.
Speaker:Um, yes, people do complain about the wind farms.
Speaker:Um, I wonder how much they'll complain about nuclear facilities
Speaker:and I just, that's, well, I think the, um, The wind farms that are
Speaker:20 kilometres out to sea are such a great option, I mean, realistically.
Speaker:Yeah, but then of course they interfere with the right whale migrations.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think, uh, whales have been navigating, um, shipping, um,
Speaker:islands, um, other hazards.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I reckon they'll find their way around a wind farm without too much trouble.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Okay, what else have I got here?
Speaker:So legal hurdles, Joe.
Speaker:This is the interesting part.
Speaker:Um, Michael Bradley writing in Crikey talked about some of the legal hurdles.
Speaker:And the fact is that the premiers of the states where the reactors will
Speaker:supposedly be built have already said they don't want them and they won't
Speaker:be changing the law to allow them.
Speaker:And each of the states has specific legislation prohibiting.
Speaker:The sort of activities you need to build a nuclear power plant, like constructing
Speaker:and operating a nuclear facility, transporting nuclear material or waste,
Speaker:and converting or enriching uranium.
Speaker:That's all banned
Speaker:at a state level.
Speaker:Well, New South Wales doesn't.
Speaker:Um, doesn't have some of that?
Speaker:Well, um, there's um, what's it, isn't there?
Speaker:The, the, Lucas Heights.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I would imagine it has a special exemption to a broad prohibition.
Speaker:Probably.
Speaker:That's what I think would probably be the case here.
Speaker:So, so Dutton needs the states to repeal the laws that are already in place,
Speaker:um, or he somehow needs to override it with valid Commonwealth legislation.
Speaker:So, neither of those is possible.
Speaker:But even before we get to that, there's federal law against it.
Speaker:So, there's existing federal law which explicitly Expressly prohibits.
Speaker:An Environment Minister from approving the construction or operation of
Speaker:a nuclear fuel fabrication plants, nuclear power plants, enrichment plants.
Speaker:In addition, there's the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety
Speaker:Act, which prohibits the nuclear regulator from authorising the same activities.
Speaker:So at a federal level, the law is against it.
Speaker:He would have to get control of the House of Reps and the Senate.
Speaker:in order to change that law.
Speaker:That's never going to happen.
Speaker:The last time the Liberals had control of the Senate and the
Speaker:House of Reps was John Howard.
Speaker:And in, ironically, Use that power to legislate the federal
Speaker:ban on nuclear power, Joe.
Speaker:I love the irony of that.
Speaker:So, at a federal level They had,
Speaker:um, Ziggy Swiatowski for a while, didn't they?
Speaker:What about him?
Speaker:Well, he was, uh, he's actually a nuclear physicist.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And they had him, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago, investigating
Speaker:the possibility of nuclear.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:I don't know what the output of that ever was, but They were in power at the time.
Speaker:They could have done it then.
Speaker:Yeah, they've been in power for, what, 10 years with, um, Turnbull, Morrison, etc.
Speaker:Never a mention of all this until the Dutton era.
Speaker:Ah, anyway, um, so, so at a federal level, there's laws against it and there's
Speaker:no way they're going to get power over both houses of parliament to change it.
Speaker:So that's not going to happen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But even if they did, there's state laws in place that they cannot override
Speaker:because under our constitution, um, basically the state has power, the
Speaker:states have power to make laws and it's only where specific powers have
Speaker:been granted to the, to the federal government that they can make laws.
Speaker:And there's nothing in that list of specific powers That comes
Speaker:anywhere close to nuclear power generation is something that the
Speaker:federal government has power to do.
Speaker:That's why our electricity generation is all state based,
Speaker:because there's no federal power to legislate in relation to it.
Speaker:And you know, on a really outside chance, you could argue, well, we've
Speaker:signed an international treaty.
Speaker:Of some sort, and the federal power has relation, uh, federal government has power
Speaker:in relation to international treaties.
Speaker:But we haven't signed any treaty in relation to nuclear power,
Speaker:so they can't even use that.
Speaker:It's just, from a legal standpoint
Speaker:They're proposing to use sites that are currently coal fired power stations,
Speaker:and a lot of these are privately owned.
Speaker:So they would have to either buy them from these private operators, or,
Speaker:um, if the operators refuse to The
Speaker:private operator to run nuclear for them?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, they would have to They would have to, if the private operator
Speaker:refused to sell, they would have to, um, forcibly buy it from them.
Speaker:There are just so many issues, from a legal point of view, that it's,
Speaker:there's so much wrong with this.
Speaker:It is, it's crazy how, every which way you look at this proposal, it's a dumb,
Speaker:stupid, impossible, crazy idea, which makes it all the more infuriating.
Speaker:Such a large percentage of the population thinks it's quite,
Speaker:quite possibly a good idea.
Speaker:We'll get to that in a moment with some polls etc.
Speaker:Yeah, so, um, before we get to polls, how's the propaganda working out there?
Speaker:So, as you know, dear listener, on your behalf, I read the
Speaker:Courier Mail for my sins.
Speaker:And, uh, today's Courier Mail, headline, Yes, in my backyard.
Speaker:Exclusive poll shows nuclear support.
Speaker:Regions back plan to replace their coal plants with reactors.
Speaker:And a picture of a couple of farmers basically saying, yep, put
Speaker:the, uh, nuclear power plant here.
Speaker:We want it.
Speaker:And then on page four today, headline, Nation is open to the nuclear option.
Speaker:And on page, it goes all the way over to page five, where they've basically, um,
Speaker:done a quick poll of 923 people and asked them, um, whether they were happy to have
Speaker:a nuclear power plant in their backyard.
Speaker:And surprisingly, the people they surveyed, the majority of them said yes.
Speaker:And, you know, so there's the sort of propaganda, um, kickoff
Speaker:by, by Murdoch Press, um, all in favor of the nuclear power.
Speaker:And, um, And that's how that's sort of heading off.
Speaker:In terms of actual articles, so one of the I was just
Speaker:seeing the um, 60 billion dollars to build the plants.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Are you aware of Hinkley Point C?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:It's okay, in the UK one of the big nuclear power stations is Hinkley Point.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And EDF, who are probably one of the world's leading companies in
Speaker:terms of building power stations.
Speaker:You're welcome.
Speaker:are building the Hinkley Point C reactor for, uh, British
Speaker:Nuclear Fuels, I think it is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, it's four years, at least four years overdue.
Speaker:It's 50 percent over budget, uh, and, and this is at an existing budget.
Speaker:site that has the infrastructure already set up, uh, with all the
Speaker:laws in place, uh, by experts who know what they're doing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well over time.
Speaker:Well over budget.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I have heard of that one.
Speaker:It might be in the notes here somewhere.
Speaker:So, um, so one of the articles here, um, transfer of power skills set is ideal.
Speaker:This is one of the articles in today's Courier Mail.
Speaker:Coal fired power station workers are a ready made workforce.
Speaker:They could easily shift their skills across to new, high
Speaker:paying nuclear energy jobs.
Speaker:Experts say, Joe, I see that, I see those two words all the time in the News Corp.
Speaker:And it invariably means
Speaker:Some blokes on the pub.
Speaker:Some.
Speaker:Some guy with a degree who was sold out on his profession, which is
Speaker:only marginally related to the topic at hand, has, has come out in the
Speaker:same way that you can find some.
Speaker:Medical people came out as anti vaxxers, you know, um.
Speaker:You can find geologists, the young earth creationists.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:So, experts say, is immediately, my ears prick up, experts say Australia
Speaker:should also tap into the growing pipeline of skilled specialists.
Speaker:For the AUKUS Nuclear Submarine Program and train them for a local industry.
Speaker:And he says here, um, Centre for Radiation Research, Education
Speaker:and Innovation, Director.
Speaker:Tony Hooker said the co location would not only lower energy transmission
Speaker:costs but provide a ready made workforce with transferable skills.
Speaker:Quote, the advantage is that all of your electrical engineers, mechanical
Speaker:engineers, all of your trades and ancillary staff would just likely
Speaker:transition across to a nuclear power plant, Professor Hooker said.
Speaker:Professor Tony Hooker.
Speaker:So I immediately googled.
Speaker:Who the fuck is Professor Tony Hooker?
Speaker:And, um, um, he's got a PhD in Molecular Biology Genetics with
Speaker:research interests in the mechanisms of radiation induced damage.
Speaker:He's the inaugural director of the Centre for Radiation Research, Education and
Speaker:Innovation at the University of Adelaide.
Speaker:Um, as the principal radiation advisor, Radiation Health for
Speaker:the South Australian Government.
Speaker:It's all to do with biology, genetics and radiation.
Speaker:Yeah, radiation damage and radiation cures, radiation treatment.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:That doesn't make you an expert on whether a power station in the regions
Speaker:is a good idea, whether jobs are transferable, whether it's And the
Speaker:Courier Mail kicks off with experts say.
Speaker:He's not a friggin expert of what skilled specialists can transfer their skills.
Speaker:If you were going to ask him about what the risk of nuclear exposure is
Speaker:to humans in the surrounding area.
Speaker:Absolutely, he's an expert.
Speaker:Yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker:Ah, and there was another article, uh, in the Courier Mail, um, scare
Speaker:campaign, embarrassing, say experts.
Speaker:And this was about how I think a number of Labor MPs or others were
Speaker:sort of doing memes with, um, talking about sort of mutations of, of people
Speaker:and animals that might happen in around, um, Nuclear power plants.
Speaker:And, um, further on in that article, um, University of Sydney Electrical
Speaker:Engineering Senior Lecturer, Dr.
Speaker:Jeremy Kwee, said he was supportive of the Coalition's nuclear plan.
Speaker:He pushed back on claims nuclear was too expensive, by clarifying that although
Speaker:it is much higher capital costs in the short term, the production of energy is
Speaker:more affordable than renewable energy.
Speaker:Comparing nuclear to renewable, it is very stable, and its cost is very low.
Speaker:In terms of the running costs, it's lower than coal and natural gas.
Speaker:But when we talk about capital cost investment, that will be
Speaker:much higher over the short term.
Speaker:So
Speaker:But again, he says it's lower cost than coal and natural gas, renewables.
Speaker:Guess what's cheap?
Speaker:Sunlight and wind.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And who is he?
Speaker:He's currently a Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering.
Speaker:Thanks That doesn't make you an expert on energy costs.
Speaker:Just because you've got a degree in something electrical doesn't
Speaker:make you an expert in this field.
Speaker:Just because you've got a specialty in radiation damage doesn't make you an
Speaker:expert in, in the economics of putting nuclear power stations in the regions.
Speaker:But we get these Courier mail articles that have experts say, and these
Speaker:guys sell their souls for a few lines of propaganda, for God's sake.
Speaker:But Joe, Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Fitzsimmons, excellent article, um,
Speaker:which should be compulsory reading for every person in Australia.
Speaker:And so he has interviewed.
Speaker:Professor Ty Christopher, an electrical engineer
Speaker:with four decades of experience in the power industry, and is the
Speaker:director of Energy Futures Network within the Faculty of Engineering
Speaker:at the University of Wollongong.
Speaker:And so, uh, The interview starts and Fitz Simon says to this guy, you
Speaker:know, well, what's your credentials?
Speaker:And he says, I'm now just shy of 40 years in the power industry, including
Speaker:10 years on the executive of what is now Endeavour Energy, with the last
Speaker:five years as the chief engineer.
Speaker:I'm now with the University of Wollongong, helping coordinate energy futures
Speaker:research, and I lead a collaboration of just under 100 academics from all
Speaker:disciplines across the university Social scientists, market economists, marine
Speaker:ecologists and engineers, all the varying backgrounds, to bring together those
Speaker:minds in a focused way on energy systems.
Speaker:And, um, uh,
Speaker:there's somewhere else there where he talked about billions of dollars
Speaker:of stuff that he'd been involved in.
Speaker:Let me see if I can look.
Speaker:I might get to it soon.
Speaker:So, um,
Speaker:uh, there we go.
Speaker:Um, I say this from the point of view of being an engineer who's
Speaker:delivered billions, literally billions of dollars worth of
Speaker:energy projects throughout my life.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Even 20 years to build a power station is very optimistic.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So that's, that's, you know, this is somebody with some
Speaker:credentials that we can listen to.
Speaker:And he was the one who talked about, uh, the offshore turbines that I mentioned
Speaker:earlier about the size of them and, um, and, and the sort of equivalent of
Speaker:what a large wind turbine can produce compared to Five homes, et cetera.
Speaker:So, um, now, um, uh, he's talked about the capacity of offshore wind and
Speaker:how it's, um, it's relatively high compared to solar and onshore wind.
Speaker:Um, its capacity is around 50 to 55 percent.
Speaker:Um, so that's when it's sort of functioning and generating, um, power, um,
Speaker:compared to onshore, which is about 30%.
Speaker:And, um, and he's saying that in Australia, it makes even more
Speaker:sense because as a population, we mostly cling to the coast.
Speaker:So you can put them offshore near where the energy is needed.
Speaker:So it's much shorter and less expensive transmission lines.
Speaker:So he says, uh, Fitz Island says 55%.
Speaker:sort of, um, capacity still sounds a bit low, uh, compared to say
Speaker:nuclear, which is surely 100%.
Speaker:And he said, well, um, uh, and, and coal.
Speaker:And he says, well, um, the capacity factor of coal at the moment is 60%.
Speaker:So there's a lot of downtime in, you know, Electricity generation
Speaker:for our coal fired generators.
Speaker:Especially when they blow up.
Speaker:Yes, and um And the bulk of Australia's coal fired power plants
Speaker:will exit the grid within 10 years.
Speaker:Their energy has to be replaced, not in 20 to 30 years time,
Speaker:but within the next decade.
Speaker:And even, um, yeah, International Atomic Energy Agency publishes a guidelines
Speaker:handbook, step by step guide on how to go nuclear, internationally recognised
Speaker:manual on what you have to do to go from zero to a functioning nuclear power plant.
Speaker:And, um, it's at least 15 to 20 years, so our existing coal generators are going
Speaker:within 10, nuclear would be at least 15 to 20, we need something in between,
Speaker:and um, uh, what else did he say here,
Speaker:um.
Speaker:He says, um, when people ask me, am I anti nuclear, I look them in the
Speaker:eye and say, no, I'm anti bullshit.
Speaker:That's a guy I can relate to.
Speaker:He says, renewables are the cheapest.
Speaker:They are reliable enough for what we need.
Speaker:They are the best way to bring down customer bills.
Speaker:And they are the best way for us to decarbonise our economy, which
Speaker:is what we are committed to do.
Speaker:Joe, we need to decarbonise and the solution Is cheaper, and it's
Speaker:decentralised, and these fuckwits in the conservative cause just
Speaker:want to make it harder and harder to get to the right decision.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I just like the scare stories about electric vehicles.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:The stuff I'm seeing about them, and
Speaker:it's bullshit.
Speaker:Yeah, and it's relatively easily debunked, but, you know, you put your news headline
Speaker:out, nobody reads past the headline.
Speaker:Yeah, and this is the problem with the ABC, when it just issues a headline, you
Speaker:know, Dutton says this, um, blah blah blah, uh, Albanese asked to respond.
Speaker:People think, oh, well it must be a reasonable proposition.
Speaker:Must be a 50 50 moment, must be some credibility to it.
Speaker:So you're saying the headline should say Dutton arse again?
Speaker:In an ideal world, Joe, uh, yes, yes.
Speaker:Dutton spews irrational nonsense Albanese refuses to answer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ted O'Brien, Joe.
Speaker:This guy reminds me of Morrison.
Speaker:He's got the same smirk happening.
Speaker:He's got the same
Speaker:mannerisms.
Speaker:So he's the opposition energy spokesman and, you know,
Speaker:they've got this nuclear plan.
Speaker:You would think one of the basics of the plan, Joe, would be, well,
Speaker:how much of our needs is going to be covered by nuclear under your plan?
Speaker:Mm hmm.
Speaker:Roughly.
Speaker:Ballpark figure.
Speaker:What percentage of our electricity needs are going to be met by
Speaker:these seven power stations?
Speaker:Because they haven't even said whether they're proper power stations or they're
Speaker:the small, modular ones that don't exist.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So just the basics of, OK, you're going to go nuclear, how much
Speaker:can we expect from nuclear?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Insiders, um, Spears is the guy who, the compere, normally he's terrible, but on
Speaker:this occasion maybe he's better than that.
Speaker:So let's go with a bit of, uh, David Spears on this one.
Speaker:Will it be 10%?
Speaker:And so again, our, our energy mix, we'll talk about In the future, ahead
Speaker:of the market needs to know now.
Speaker:I mean, if it's only going to be a tiny fraction of the market
Speaker:They won't have long to wait, David, until they understand
Speaker:the energy mix.
Speaker:Look, they need to know very soon, right now, really, whether they
Speaker:should keep investing or not.
Speaker:And what matters is whether nuclear is going to make up 20,
Speaker:50 percent of the energy mix, or 2 or 3 percent of the energy mix.
Speaker:So, a couple of things.
Speaker:Firstly, uh, I'm a Liberal.
Speaker:And, um, I appreciate and respect that investors want to make money.
Speaker:And so we have designed this policy with a crystal clear vision of Australians paying
Speaker:for cheaper, more affordable housing.
Speaker:And they'll only
Speaker:do
Speaker:that
Speaker:if the market keeps investing, as you've acknowledged at the outset.
Speaker:Indeed, and
Speaker:I've answered that, acknowledging the need.
Speaker:So, they'll only
Speaker:invest if you give them some clarity on whether nuclear is going to
Speaker:take up 50 percent or 2 percent
Speaker:of
Speaker:the
Speaker:mix.
Speaker:They will get clarity, um, and Do you know this answer?
Speaker:In terms of the broader energy mix, David, we will be coming
Speaker:out with that in due course.
Speaker:But do
Speaker:you know yourself or will you leave this to another body to work that out?
Speaker:You mentioned earlier this body that will work out how many
Speaker:reactors will go on each plant site.
Speaker:That suggests you haven't worked this out.
Speaker:So, we have done our planning and we'll be very explicit about our assumptions.
Speaker:Do you know?
Speaker:But, about our assumptions.
Speaker:Do you know the answer to this question?
Speaker:Rephrase the question, is it, is it The question is, how
Speaker:much of the energy mix will be nuclear under your plan?
Speaker:We will be announcing that at the time that we announce our broader mix.
Speaker:Because David, we've only talked But do you know it at the moment?
Speaker:Do you know it at the moment?
Speaker:I'm very clear Or would this be for an
Speaker:independent body to work out?
Speaker:We've announced the nuclear part of our, our policy.
Speaker:The real question is not on nuclear, for example, how much it costs.
Speaker:But is it value for money?
Speaker:I think a lot of people worry about how much it costs
Speaker:and whether it's pushing their bills up.
Speaker:But it's from a business case point of view.
Speaker:I just want to be clear on this.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:You're not sure at the moment whether nuclear would make up
Speaker:only 5 percent of the energy mix?
Speaker:David,
Speaker:we've done all the work on the nuclear front.
Speaker:Do you know this?
Speaker:But until, until we release renewables, policy and gas
Speaker:Depressing, Joe.
Speaker:Feels like that.
Speaker:Well, I guess he knows the answer.
Speaker:The answer is 0%.
Speaker:They've no intention of delivering nuclear.
Speaker:They've no intention of delivering it.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:But even if you said to him, you know, in a fanciful world where these seven
Speaker:nuclear reactors are built, because they haven't even said whether they're
Speaker:proper reactors or whether they're the small modular ones that don't
Speaker:even exist yet, he's got no idea.
Speaker:It just demonstrates how full of shit these guys are.
Speaker:That, um He couldn't give a ballpark figure of what they're
Speaker:gonna generate from this.
Speaker:And it just had a Morrison type smirk about him.
Speaker:For, oh, goodness me.
Speaker:Ahhhh.
Speaker:They're schooled in not answering the question, aren't they?
Speaker:But it's obvious to anybody watching it.
Speaker:Like, surely nobody fools for that anymore.
Speaker:The, it's clear to everybody, he doesn't know.
Speaker:No, I'm sure he doesn't.
Speaker:Or, or the answer is so low, he doesn't want to say.
Speaker:Each, each one is, you know, which one do you reckon it'd be, Joe?
Speaker:I reckon, I reckon he doesn't even know.
Speaker:No, I reckon they know and the answer is zero percent.
Speaker:This is a distraction.
Speaker:They've no intention of delivering on it.
Speaker:Oh, Joe.
Speaker:I reckon they'll have some reports that are, um, generated by some
Speaker:very expensive contractors.
Speaker:Some consultants will go out and go, actually, you know, nuclear
Speaker:is going to be too expensive.
Speaker:But it'll take them several years to get to that point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:By which time, you know, we'll have kicked the coal industry down the Road
Speaker:for another however many years and carried on digging up shit out of the ground.
Speaker:It should be staying in the ground Yeah, and it will have fulfilled its purpose
Speaker:John says the smirk reminds me of the Dunning Kruger theory.
Speaker:Look, the smirk reminded me of Morrison.
Speaker:I was reading about Dunning Kruger today statistical Screw up.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah What do you mean it's a statistical screw up?
Speaker:It doesn't exist They've actually gone back and re analyzed the
Speaker:statistics from the paper.
Speaker:What did the paper say?
Speaker:The paper said basically people who are less capable overestimate their ability.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, and basically the way they figured this out was by correlating two numbers,
Speaker:but one of the numbers was actually generated from the other number.
Speaker:Ah.
Speaker:So it was correlated with itself.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay, so it wasn't, um, okay, and so it's not a replicatable, um, study.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's so much in, um, Thinking Fast and Slow that was not replicatable as well.
Speaker:Like a lot of these things are questionable.
Speaker:So, so Dunning Kruger theory doesn't stack up based on that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, the evidence they relied on is flawed.
Speaker:Didn't show that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look, there is a solution, Joe, to this power issue.
Speaker:Well, maybe not a solution, but some help.
Speaker:The Lucas Heights facility, um, Which is the one which, uh, actually Whatley
Speaker:was corresponding about, he had some connection with it at one point and,
Speaker:um, So this is the facility that sort of has a very low level sort of nuclear
Speaker:facility that generates stuff for medical purposes and for scientific
Speaker:research, like, Extremely, extremely low output for these sort of minor medical.
Speaker:interests of sort.
Speaker:Yeah, it
Speaker:basically allows us to become self sufficient in nuclear medicine.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, anyway, that, um, the politician who was, um, kicked off from the
Speaker:Liberals, I think, and then stood as an independent, Dai Li, Li, Dai Li?
Speaker:I don't know how you pronounce her name.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:She's talking about that facility.
Speaker:We'll play this one.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:my understanding also is That, uh, uh, Lucas Heights, where our, our nuclear
Speaker:reactor, my understanding is from speaking in this, uh, space is that
Speaker:it generates so much energy, but that energy is actually not being utilized.
Speaker:It's just, you know, it's not being captured.
Speaker:So that's another, you know, perhaps in discussing, uh, nuclear
Speaker:energy, we can look at Lucas Heights and see what's happening there.
Speaker:There
Speaker:we go.
Speaker:A secret height facility is possible, Joe.
Speaker:Lucasfix was never designed to generate electricity.
Speaker:It was designed for a completely different purpose.
Speaker:You're such a pessimist, Joe.
Speaker:Think expansively.
Speaker:Think, think outside the box.
Speaker:You know, get in touch with your community.
Speaker:And um, start sentences with, you know, it's my understanding that.
Speaker:Which is what you do in the law a lot, when you basically, I don't
Speaker:really know, but here's my best guess.
Speaker:But the laws of physics, you know, just obey whatever a lawmaker says.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:I was in the elevator, Joe, and um, there's a guy there I met,
Speaker:Mark, who I've talked to before, and I know he's a conservative, of
Speaker:a conservative bent, and he said, you know, how's your website going?
Speaker:I said, well, my podcast is going fine.
Speaker:In fact, tonight I'm going to be talking about Peter Dutton and his crazy nuclear
Speaker:policy, and I'll be bagging it severely.
Speaker:And he mentioned about the, um, sort of, mutation memes and stuff.
Speaker:And I said, Oh, I'm not worried about that.
Speaker:Oh, it's the cost.
Speaker:It's incredibly expensive.
Speaker:And he said, Oh, well, it's cheaper in France, actually.
Speaker:It's cheap in France, but you know, maybe they've been doing it for a long time.
Speaker:These are the sorts of things you've got to deal with all the time.
Speaker:Quick Google search.
Speaker:Dutton apparently said France has the cheapest power in Europe with
Speaker:70 percent of its electricity generated from nuclear energy.
Speaker:But And again from another article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Speaker:The Sydney Morning Herald seems to at least be publishing stuff,
Speaker:um, anti nuclear that I don't see in the Murdoch press, Joe.
Speaker:Not sure why or what's going on there, but at least a couple of decent things
Speaker:have come from the Sydney Morning Herald.
Speaker:Anyway, in this article it says, Last month, France's spot electricity
Speaker:price went negative as cheap renewable energy flooded its power market.
Speaker:This Combined with reduced, combined with reduced demand over a weekend, French,
Speaker:French officials shut down three nuclear reactors because their power could not
Speaker:compete against ultra cheap renewables.
Speaker:Other parts of Europe are also turning off their nuclear reactors for
Speaker:periods of time because their power is expensive compared to renewables.
Speaker:Joe, I didn't know it was possible to do that.
Speaker:shut down a nuclear facility.
Speaker:But it is?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, you don't shut it down, you turn down the
Speaker:amount of energy you produce.
Speaker:They're always going to be ticking over.
Speaker:But yes, um, basically when you split an atom, uh, it produces a number of neutrons
Speaker:that fire off into and split other atoms.
Speaker:And if you stick in control rods, they absorb the neutrons.
Speaker:And they reduce the amount of atoms that are being split.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And so you can reduce the amount of energy that you are generating.
Speaker:So there you go dear listener, if you are in an elevator with
Speaker:somebody and strike up a conversation and they mention the French, uh,
Speaker:experience, you are now fully armed.
Speaker:Oh, and one extra bit for you, you can say, um, France, despite
Speaker:its long experience building nuclear power plants, has struggled
Speaker:to meet cost and time targets.
Speaker:The 1, 650 megawatt Flaminville.
Speaker:Power plant on the Cherbourg Peninsula in North West France completed fuel
Speaker:loading last month and is due to be fully operational by year's end.
Speaker:Construction started in 2007.
Speaker:That's a long time ago, Joe.
Speaker:That was, that's the one that literally, sitting on Mum and Dad's chimney stack,
Speaker:I could see when I was growing up.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Well, this is, uh, Flammable, Flammable 3, our plant.
Speaker:Yeah, this is the third one, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then just up
Speaker:the coast is Capitola Hog, which is the nuclear reprocessing plant.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And you're perfectly fine, Joe, despite growing up, yep, and you are.
Speaker:So when I was, I don't know, early teens, they opened up a power line to France.
Speaker:We got more reliable electricity because the local power station used
Speaker:to drop out for hours at a time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, and it was cheaper.
Speaker:And the local press ran an April Fool's.
Speaker:article That said you could tell when we were switching over to french
Speaker:electricity There'd be a warning light and we'd have french sockets next to
Speaker:the english sockets on the wall And you'd have to unplug everything out
Speaker:of the english sockets and plug into the french sockets And you know that
Speaker:you were running on french electricity because it would smell faintly of garlic
Speaker:And people honestly believed it wrote in complaint
Speaker:letters Anyway, there's a third power plant.
Speaker:Construction started in 2007 and they've only just completed fuel loading.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's nearly 20 years later.
Speaker:And it was,
Speaker:this is
Speaker:a hundred miles from the 500 megawatt offshore wind plant
Speaker:they've just built in three years.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:This one is, is.
Speaker:It's going to take close to 20, and it was initially supposed to take five.
Speaker:It was supposed to be up and running by 2012 at a cost of 3.
Speaker:3 billion.
Speaker:Brackets 5.
Speaker:3 billion.
Speaker:That would be 5.
Speaker:3 billion in today's money, I think.
Speaker:No, no, no, 3.
Speaker:3 billion euros.
Speaker:Ah, euros.
Speaker:Ah, 5.
Speaker:3 billion
Speaker:Dollars.
Speaker:Dollars, yep.
Speaker:12 years behind schedule, the estimated cost is now 20 billion euros.
Speaker:So, initially A five year build has blown out to nearly 20.
Speaker:Initial cost 3.
Speaker:3 billion euros, now 20 billion and, uh, and this is in a
Speaker:country with long experience of building nuclear power plants.
Speaker:There's a reason that the French are building, um,
Speaker:uh, wind farms.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because it's cheap.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It
Speaker:works.
Speaker:They've got wind.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The other thing you'll see, some other people I speak to about this, life's
Speaker:getting hard dear listener, when I just speak to people, and you know,
Speaker:you say, well you realise of course the levelised cost of energy looks at
Speaker:the amortisation of the capital costs and is a fair way of working out the
Speaker:true cost of the various systems.
Speaker:You know, you'll say the CSIRO has done a report and somebody will go,
Speaker:well you can't trust them, bunch of scientists, they're all in the pay of the
Speaker:government, of course they're going to tell the government whatever it wants.
Speaker:And you just go, oh, okay.
Speaker:You've also got the international finance services firm, Lazard, has been doing
Speaker:this for a long time as well, and I know in previous episodes we've looked
Speaker:at their reports, and it's the same story, and it's all over the world.
Speaker:Onshore wind the cheapest, utility sized solar next cheapest,
Speaker:nuclear the most expensive.
Speaker:And in terms of trends, wind and solar getting cheaper,
Speaker:nuclear getting more expensive.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:that's the sort of stuff that is going on.
Speaker:Interestingly, although solar isn't, um, effective for large periods of the
Speaker:day, It is effective at the time that we actually use the most energy, which
Speaker:is when we're running air conditioning.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:Which is in the middle of the day.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:To the point where when I was out at a coal fired power station back in 2018,
Speaker:I think, they said when the power plant was built, their don't touch anything
Speaker:period was in the middle of the day.
Speaker:They were running peak capacity, uh, and because they, um, Because
Speaker:power generation is based on the difference between the heat in the
Speaker:generator and the heat outside.
Speaker:So basically trying to shed the heat outside to cool the water down to reheat
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Um, they actually run at less capacity in the middle of the day.
Speaker:So they're less efficient in the middle of the day because of the heat outside.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:Um, So that was their peak, don't do anything, don't do any work.
Speaker:It's now their maintenance period because there's so much rooftop
Speaker:solar that the demand for coal fired generation in the middle of the day
Speaker:has dropped down to nearly nothing.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:At least for this plant.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, actually I should do with, um, levelised cost of energy, where
Speaker:have I put that in these notes?
Speaker:I did have it here somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah, I did it.
Speaker:It's gone missing.
Speaker:Doesn't matter.
Speaker:Let me just, um,
Speaker:Joe,
Speaker:share the screen here with a bit of luck.
Speaker:Am I going to share the screen?
Speaker:Share the screen.
Speaker:Not yet.
Speaker:Let me just try and add a screen share to this.
Speaker:Um, essential report.
Speaker:Um, there we go.
Speaker:A central report has asked people their views on nuclear power.
Speaker:And it's a bit depressing.
Speaker:This is from the 18th of June.
Speaker:Views on emission targets by voting intention.
Speaker:Oh dear.
Speaker:Which of the following is closer to your view on Australia's
Speaker:2030 2050 emissions targets?
Speaker:And the blue one is Australia should stick to the 2030 target.
Speaker:And achieving this target is necessary to meet the 2050, or the red one, which
Speaker:is Australia should abandon the 2030 target, because it's unachievable,
Speaker:it's hurting the economy, and instead we should focus on the 2050 target,
Speaker:which is basically 2030's too hard, we should kick this can down the road.
Speaker:Oh, and see the report where it said basically the earlier we start.
Speaker:Moving towards net zero, the less pain we have,
Speaker:the
Speaker:later we leave it, the more effort we have to put in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Overall, 52 percent of Australians said we should stick to the 2030.
Speaker:48 percent of Australians said, let's forget 2030, it's too hard,
Speaker:it's hurting too much, let's just kick that can down the road.
Speaker:Do they have any evidence that it's actually hurting too much?
Speaker:That it's had any impact whatsoever on the economy?
Speaker:I doubt it.
Speaker:Uh, gender.
Speaker:Of course, um, males more likely to kick the can down the road than females.
Speaker:Age.
Speaker:Old people, 55 plus.
Speaker:They weren't going to live to see the Prime Minister.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Uh, more than happy to kick that can down the road.
Speaker:It's the young people, 63 percent of 18 to 34 year olds want
Speaker:to stick to the 2030 target.
Speaker:Um, only 41 percent of 55 year olds want to.
Speaker:There's such a selfish bunch, these old codgers.
Speaker:With no concern for
Speaker:Well, they've proved that with house prices, haven't they?
Speaker:With everything.
Speaker:Voting intention, of course,
Speaker:Labor and the Greens more likely to stick to the 2030 target.
Speaker:Coalition and minor parties, which usually means Pauline Hanson
Speaker:and Catter and people like that.
Speaker:No, no, no, minor as in M I N E R parties.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:What gets me is 27 percent of Greens voters want to kick the can down the road.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What's a Greens vote?
Speaker:I mean, obviously you could consider nuclear as a green option, but
Speaker:it's an economically stupid option.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Maybe that's what they're thinking.
Speaker:Nuclear's green.
Speaker:Let's go the nuclear option.
Speaker:Without knowing their economics.
Speaker:The Greens Party's Greenpeace, for instance.
Speaker:were against the expansion of nuclear.
Speaker:Greens have historically been, not necessarily in this country,
Speaker:but Greens around the world have historically been against nuclear.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Ah.
Speaker:Which of the following do you think is the better way for Australia to achieve
Speaker:its emissions target of net zero by 2050?
Speaker:The blue is continue to develop renewables, and Decommission Fossil Fuels.
Speaker:The red is Stop the development of renewables, stick with fossil fuels,
Speaker:and wait till nuclear is developed and can kick in in 15 to 20 years.
Speaker:In what world is stick with fossil fuels the right answer?
Speaker:Renewables are available and cheap even if you want to go for nuclear.
Speaker:Joe, 51 percent of coalition voters think that is the best option.
Speaker:Stop renewables, stick with fossil, wait for nuclear.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:Same in the minor parties.
Speaker:Joe, 26 percent of Greens voters think that's a good idea.
Speaker:That's the scary part.
Speaker:27 percent of Labor.
Speaker:Once again, let's look at gender.
Speaker:Gosh, wonder what this will reveal.
Speaker:Oh, actually very similar.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I, I would say within statistical noise, actually
Speaker:yes.
Speaker:Matches the exactly 62% or of males.
Speaker:63% of females wanna continue renewables.
Speaker:Um, 37, 30 8% don't.
Speaker:What was the overall figure I should have had that, the overall figure, 63%
Speaker:of Australians, let's go with renewables.
Speaker:37% say, let's stop renewables, keep going with fossil fuels.
Speaker:Wait for Nuclear.
Speaker:And I bet with age it's very much skewed towards the older ones.
Speaker:Age.
Speaker:Not as strong as I would have thought.
Speaker:Age.
Speaker:No, no, it's the 35 to 54 that are the most keen on.
Speaker:Oh, sorry, no, Renewables is.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Funnily, the 35 to 54 are more keen on the Develop renewables and get rid
Speaker:of fossils than the younger 18 to 34.
Speaker:Still the 55 plus are the strongest group, but not by so
Speaker:much as I would have thought.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Comparatively.
Speaker:Voting intention, um, kind of what you'd expect.
Speaker:Sometimes the way these things are phrased can make a difference.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:we've already done the 2030 target, I won't do that one again.
Speaker:Um, Quickly, views on Israel, uh, overall,
Speaker:um, which is your, uh, view on Israel's military action in Gaza, um,
Speaker:the blue is Israel is justified, the orange is Israel should agree to a
Speaker:temporary ceasefire, and the red is Israel should permanently withdraw.
Speaker:The grey is unsure.
Speaker:So
Speaker:15 percent of Australians overall think Israel is justified in
Speaker:continuing its military action.
Speaker:The rest think there should be either a temporary or permanent
Speaker:withdrawal, or they don't know.
Speaker:So, only 15 percent think Israel is justified.
Speaker:That's the overall trend.
Speaker:Gender.
Speaker:Males.
Speaker:20 percent think Israel is justified.
Speaker:Only 10 percent of females think so?
Speaker:I
Speaker:think it's the unsure that shows the biggest gender variation.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And in the unsure, 34 percent of females are unsure.
Speaker:19 percent of males are sure.
Speaker:Age, uh, the older you are, the more Well, 18 34 and 35 54.
Speaker:Only 11 percent think Israel is justified, but when you get to the Boomers, 55
Speaker:22 percent think Israel is justified.
Speaker:So, that's Australians current thinking of that, and, uh, the rest, uh,
Speaker:don't think we'll worry about those.
Speaker:I think we'll just move on from that.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Oh, Joe, where are we up to?
Speaker:9.
Speaker:13.
Speaker:I thought it would just be about nuclear, this one.
Speaker:Um, could I find that lowest cost, that lowest cost of energy report?
Speaker:I can't, but it's clear, dear listener, renewables are the cheaper option.
Speaker:When you look at the capital costs and the depreciation over the lifetime of
Speaker:the capital, And the decommissioning and the running costs, the renewables
Speaker:are considerably cheaper than nuclear.
Speaker:It's a no brainer.
Speaker:And all the other arguments don't really matter because you
Speaker:can bring it online quickly.
Speaker:You don't have to wait 20 years.
Speaker:It's not going to be, um, fraught with the, with the, With the same difficulties
Speaker:that nuclear has, and Joe, just a decentralized system, like, they worry
Speaker:about China attacking us, well, seven well placed bombs on nuclear facilities
Speaker:would wipe out, under the coalition plan, a fair bit of our power generation,
Speaker:but when you've got multiple facilities scattered all over the country It really
Speaker:provides, uh, comfort in the sense that, uh, you're spreading the risk amongst
Speaker:all these, these minor facilities.
Speaker:So in the event of disasters, uh, you don't have all your eggs in one basket
Speaker:or all your eggs in seven baskets.
Speaker:There's so many arguments for this.
Speaker:Um, but it's a measure, Joe, of where we are in this community.
Speaker:That's the most obvious, simple solution is somehow up for grabs for discussion.
Speaker:I'm depressed.
Speaker:You asked the average.
Speaker:I would say even the conservative voters, would you put rooftop solar on?
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And they would absolutely.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It would be interesting to ask that question actually.
Speaker:All these people who are going, oh no, we should keep fossil fuels, is to
Speaker:ask them, do you have rooftop solar?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because I bet they do.
Speaker:I bet the majority of them do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's so tribal.
Speaker:It's our tribe has decided nuclear.
Speaker:If, if it was Labor pushing nuclear and Liberals pushing multiple privately
Speaker:owned renewable facilities all over the country that were cheaper, these
Speaker:same people would be jumping across to the other side of the argument.
Speaker:It's pathetic, Joe.
Speaker:It's depressing.
Speaker:How would anybody get into politics when
Speaker:good, solid arguments backed by facts.
Speaker:are just worth nothing.
Speaker:I think this is, I mean, you're again It's interesting with the whole, um, you
Speaker:can't trust C I R O, C S I R O, would be to ask, well, who would you trust?
Speaker:It
Speaker:was, yeah, let's say none of them.
Speaker:Right, so how, how would they know?
Speaker:Yeah, well, you won't know.
Speaker:They're all the same.
Speaker:You can't trust any of them, they then say.
Speaker:Well, that's enough of the rant, Joe.
Speaker:We've got an hour, hour 20, hour 17 on.
Speaker:And
Speaker:we've sent all the listeners to sleep.
Speaker:Yeah, we
Speaker:have.
Speaker:Anyone still there?
Speaker:Two people.
Speaker:John says, My ardent right wing FW climate denying man put solar on his roof.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:And he says, The positive twist on those polls is that the Libs are
Speaker:getting more popular in Libs seats.
Speaker:Only their base.
Speaker:Yeah, they're not appealing to the inner city suburbs,
Speaker:inner city electorates at all.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Thanks in the chat room for watching.
Speaker:Next week, a grab bag of different topics.
Speaker:We'll talk to you then.
Speaker:Bye for now.