Want cheap power? Want no black-outs? Less pollution?
We have the solution. It would cut your bill in half.
It’s easy and ready to go … but it might mean having to build a small nuclear power plant just down the Nepean a little from Penrith.
Don’t panic – it won’t be huge with big cooling towers.
It won’t look like Chernobyl or something from ‘The Simpsons’.
This one’s a Small Modular nuclear reactor – about the size of a Bunnings store – and it’ll be up and running in a few years.
This is not ‘pie in the sky’ stuff.
In fact the only thing holding us back from having this is political pigheadedness.
Every politician has an opinion about climate change, reducing emissions, and power prices but very few will consider the nuclear solution staring us right in the eye.
Close to 500 nuclear power plants are running solidly, reliably, and (I dare say) safely in just about every advanced country.
Australia has the highest power prices in the world.
We are paying two or almost three times more than American households.
In the States, people leave the heater on in winter and the air-conditioning burning away through summer.
No-one even talks about power prices in the US. It’s not an issue. In our country we live in fear of the next power bill.
Today America has almost 100 nuclear reactors generating cheap power and no-one even blinks. The British generate about 20 per cent of their power from nuclear; 15 reactors at work every day.
Nuclear generates 75 per cent of power in France. They’re not popular but Germany has 17 nuclear reactors. 19 plants help power Canada and keep the prices down.
Meanwhile in Australia we pay through the roof and subsidise windmills and solar with billions in handouts.
Apart from the Deputy Premier John Barilaro and One Nation’s Mark Latham no-one has the courage to even utter ‘nuclear power’ even though we have the largest known uranium resources in the world.
Just maybe it’s time to grow up.
Jason Morrison
Jason Morrison is the News Director at 7News Sydney.