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Issues with nuclear power generation in Australia

Issues with nuclear power generation in Australia. Rod Duncan Marketing and Management Charles Sturt University. What choices do we have with electricity generation?. Our current generating capacity is: coal, natural gas and oil (92.5%) hydroelectric (7%)

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Issues with nuclear power generation in Australia

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  1. Issues with nuclear power generation in Australia Rod Duncan Marketing and Management Charles Sturt University

  2. What choices do we have with electricity generation? Our current generating capacity is: • coal, natural gas and oil (92.5%) • hydroelectric (7%) • renewables (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal) (0.5%) • Wind (0.13%) • Solar (0%) • nuclear (0%)

  3. What are the generating costs? If you run your 60W light-bulb for an hour, that’s 60Wh or 0.06kWh. • coal, oil, gas 4c/ kWh • wind 8c/kWh • solar 10c/kWh • nuclear 4c/kWh

  4. Global warming • The scientific consensus: • Average world temperature rise of 0.5C – 0.7C due to human activity. • The best predictions are that if this trend continues, we will see average world temperatures rise by 1.5C by 2050 and 3C by 2100. These are only guesses however.

  5. What are we doing about global warming? • Electricity generation accounts for ~50% of our GHG emissions. The electricity utilities account for 36% of our emissions and private generators account for the rest. • The Kyoto Accord requires that the countries involved reduce their emissions to 5% below their 1990 levels. Note the Kyoto Accord will not solve global warming, it will only slow down the rate of increase in world temperatures.

  6. Australian emissions • Australia is currently emitting about 25% more than we emitted in 1990. Although we are not signatories to Kyoto, we are far outside the bounds of it. • We emit far too much GHGs if we take the problem of global warming seriously.

  7. No solutions yet… • If we are serious about reducing GHGs, we have to put a tax on carbon emissions (a “carbon tax”) that at least doubles the price of electricity and petrol. The problem is that currently people emitting carbon do not face any cost for doing so. • With a carbon tax included, wind and perhaps solar become competitive technologies. • The other advantage of doubling electricity prices is that people will conserve more.

  8. What about nuclear? • Nuclear has few GHG emissions (only in the construction and transport), so with a carbon tax, nuclear now becomes the cheap technology.

  9. Concerns about safety • We have two concerns here: • operating safety of nuclear power plants; and • safety of the disposal methods for nuclear waste. • We really have too little information here. There are 440 or so nuclear power plants operating. We have only had the technology for 50 years. • What we have is little more than guesses.

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