The Nuclear debate is about to hot up with Johnny Howard determined to propel OZ into a Nuclear future.

Reports of plans for 25 Nuke Reactors along the east coast and as yet no designated waste dump sounds like an atypical Howard gvt 'f*** public opinion' idea.

Ziggy reckons Nukes will be viable against Coal Power within 15 yrs assuming a Carbon Tax is introduced. This is probably true. But I saw a CSIRO scientist on the ABC today saying with the world ramping up Uranium consumption we could run out of Uranium235 in a few decades.

If it takes over a decade to build a Nuclear Reactor why not wait and invest in the development of 'Thorium Reactors'?

This article explains how they will apparently work:
http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/scripts98/9820/thoriumscpt.htm

Thorium Reactors can actually consume old nuclear waste, there is no meltdown, we have large deposits of Thorium in Australia and to top it all off Thorium Reactor waste is dangerous for 500 yrs as opposed to Nuclear Waste which is deadly for up to 250,000 yrs.

Why not invest in magic beans?

mining for magic beans isn't anywhere near destructive enough nor is there any chance of running out of them - not an option, buddy

The magic bean association has pissweak political association, everybody thinks they are just dirty hippies.

s*** I thought this was about WoW

Best idea I ever heard. Thorium is cheaper, cleaner and far less dangerous than Uranium or Plutonium. It produces far less waste, and the half-life of any byproduct is far lower.

"f*** public opinion" in this case if good because 'the public' are f***ing retards with no clue whatsoever about the technology. Everyone is bitching and moaning, assuming it has the same problems as uranium and plutonium nuclear reactors which everyone is familiar with.

because the chinese farmers camp all the rich thorium nodes farming for arcane crystals.

we wouldnt be running out of uranium if the hippy governments would allow uranium mining. there is tons and tons and tons of the s*** in australia. i dont understand the hippies bitching about nuclear waste, they prefer to have carbon and ash spewing into the atmosphere and breathe it every day rather then store nuclear waste 200m underground.

if i had my way i'd head the 'more nuclear power plants to power more desalination plants' party.

the reason thorium hasn't been explored in any more then a demonstration of the technology is because you can't produce nuclear weapon material out of it.

Listen to cainer, he knows what he's talking about :)

isn't the main problem with thorium reactors that... no one has successfully made a neutron stream strong enough to start the reaction... or something like that :P i vaguley remember seeing a doco on them a while back & the reason why they weren't being built world wide was that the device required to produce the neutron stream was incredibly expensive & currently not powerful enough. that was a while ago though :P


[edit] also ... cobalt thorium g ( a by-product of thorium reactors ) could be used to create doomsday devices that would trigger global extinctions... saw it on dr.strangelove ;)

last edited by demon at 15:41:25 22/Nov/06

Firstly thanks Trog. you know where you can shove dem beanz. ;)

hmmm I guess the articles I'm reading dont give a timeline to when an fully operational Thorium Reactor will be built.

We can live in hope... until the next meltdown.

Of course when plans are in progress of a Thorium Reactor, yo'all be bitching about why isnt the government using NextGen Tech that is bigger and better and cleaner and I dunno, more techy :/

s*** I thought this was about WoW

Me too. How many farmers would it take to mine enough thorium viens to run a single reactor anyway?

yes i think the 'f*** public opinion' is needed here in regards to nuclear power cause most people think 'oh noes, we're all going to die' and thats why it probably wouldn't get past a referendum

cause those people are dips***s

because the chinese farmers camp all the rich thorium nodes farming for arcane crystals.

i loled

I think its more worthwhile constructing houses with solar panels. That would spare the grids a fair amount of energy. But I believe that other alternatives need to be looked at before diving into the pond of nuclear reactors. Thorium reactor's sound like a viable alternative if any of the major problems can be worked out.

i'm all for nuclear power. everyone else is doing it and it's just going to sit in the ground until we are invaded if we don't use it. best to use it now to make our own power and nukes so indons don't invade us.

im 100% for this idea

as long as all the power stations arent close to me

i hope the build one next to you

haha the indonesians can't even supress a small uprising in aceh or afford to fuel their navy, what chance do they have to invade australia. indonesia isn't a country i'd be worried about, as resources get scarce i'd be looking further north.

if it's next to me will the power be cheaper?

ps i don't trust indons. free shapelle!

indonesia does pose a threat, but not due to their military (which is the largest for a muslim country i believe)

they do pose a threat as a base for terrorism in the region though

but they don't have mo's..

terrorism is asymmetrical warfare, they might kill a few civilians here and there but it doesn't come close to invading a country and exploiting resources it could very well work the opposite way against the country that condones it. look at iran and how isolated they are, same with syria and lybia.

anyway that being said, we need more nuke plants to produce more plutonium to use against anyone who would threaten this country. god knows we can't rely on america if something isnt in their best interest. i don't know why people don't realise that.

i agree with what you're saying

but most people won't agree until it's too late, they are all pussies

I still can't see why we do not shoot our nuke waste into the sun, as if it would do any damage to that sucker.

It would be pretty cool if we could somehow harness the energy of the sun..hey wait...oh...

yeah its just a shame that your roof covered in solar photo voltaic cells produces enough electricity to power a kettle.

haha yeah if you are lucky and it only takes a couple of bored kids in the neighbourhood to destroy $20,000 worth of solar cells with rocks and then your back in the dark ages drinking cold tea

solar cells are s***

Breaking News:

Frogs create $13 billion pact with nations to build worlds first Nuclear Fusion Reactor.

http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=9375

Fusion is where its at baby.