As Australia considers the possibility of a nuclear-powered future, the US gives us insights into what does, and doesn't, work.
As day dawns in the southern US state of Georgia, the first sunlight breaks through steam clouds billowing from the giant Alvin W. Vogtle nuclear plant.Its AP1000 reactors run 24/7, using nuclear fission to boil water to create steam to turn turbines to power more than a million homes and businesses with zero-emissions electricity.It's been touted as the start of a new era for the US's flagging nuclear power industry.
"We don't want to be the purchaser of the first in class or have an Australian-made technology, we want to rely on the Westinghouse AP1000," he said in June. Beyond this, he's given little detail about how exactly the plan would work.Four Corners travelled around the US to examine the Coalition claims that developing nuclear power plants was the best way to replace coal power.
"They were telling us everything was going to be OK with this plant, that it would be on time and it would be on budget. It's over budget and we are paying for that. That seems wrong to me."It's very different to what the Coalition has been suggesting in media interviews and energy speeches since it launched its nuclear policy over three months ago.
"One of the reasons they see power prices coming down is because of the role of nuclear in the mix," he told Four Corners. He said a Coalition government would spend two-and-a-half years studying the sites and consulting communities before an independent authority chooses the most appropriate reactor design.The other type of reactor the Coalition wants in its nuclear power arsenal has been promoted as a game changer for the industry.
Four Corners went to the latest place where there's a concerted attempt to break this conundrum. It's a sleepy coal town in south-west Wyoming called Kemmerer, with a population of nearly 3,000.Enter Bill Gates. In June the billionaire climate change activist came to town and turned a sod on his project to construct a working SMR, declaring: "This is a big step towards safe, abundant, zero carbon energy.
Fortunately for the project, the town administration welcomes the prospect of anything that might bring work."We're hoping that the people that work for the power plant, the current coal burning power plant will be able to transition, or at least some of them, into the nuclear plant."For now, all that's being constructed are the bits around the reactor, while the project waits for approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission .
"The Wyoming story is a fascinating one … a wonderful example of how you can practically go from coal to nuclear and leverage the existing workforce."The uncertainty around SMRs, and the cost blowout in Georgia, point to the practical difficulties Australia would face in trying to build reactors cheaper than countries with decades of experience, when we've never built a nuclear energy plant before.
Clean energy analyst Simon Holmes a Court — who backed climate-focused teal independents to win Coalition seats at the last election — is a big fan of nuclear, just not in Australia.
Nuclear Energy Clean Energy Peter Dutton Vogtle Bill Gates Small Modular Reactors Energy Policy Ted O'brien Kemmerer
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