A teenager has criticized former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk after she rejected nuclear power plants as an option for Australia’s future energy mix.
On the ABC quiz show, Palaszczuk opposed nuclear power during a debate on Peter Dutton’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors if he wins the next election.
“Nuclear power is not the option,” Ms Palaszczuk argued on Monday night. ‘It is not the answer because it is simply too expensive and we do not have to wait 20 years to build a nuclear power plant.
‘And where are you going to put it? “You can’t put a nuclear reactor on the Queensland coast, we have cyclones,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Instead, he advocated accelerating Australia’s “decarbonization process” by expanding the use of solar panels and batteries.
‘I just returned from a trade mission to China and Japan. These factories in China are mass producing batteries like never before seen.
“We need to partner and put them into practice here.”
But Will Shackel, a young pro-nuclear activist, quickly responded on social media, arguing that nuclear plants are designed to withstand extreme conditions, including cyclones.
“Nuclear power plants are built for much worse things,” he wrote on social media.
Annastacia Palaszczuk opposed nuclear energy during a debate on Peter Dutton’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors if he wins the next election.
‘What would a cyclone really do? Nuclear plants are literally built to withstand aircraft impacts. “We need less fear and more facts.”
He cited data stating that in almost 20,000 years of combined nuclear plant operation, only three major accidents had occurred.
He claimed they were Three Mile Island, Fukushima and Chernobyl, “only Chernobyl caused radiation deaths due to management problems and outdated technology.”
The Albanian government’s Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, has dismissed the idea of nuclear energy as a “fantasy wrapped in an illusion, accompanied by a chimera.”
Instead, it will focus on renewable energy projects such as wind, solar, batteries and hydroelectricity in a bid to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Businessman Dick Smith has warned that Labor politicians will eventually be forced to support nuclear power as he believes his green energy plan is doomed to failure.
“They will be convinced because there is simply no alternative,” Mr Smith said.
‘We will have blackouts: you cannot govern a country with intermittent solar and wind energy; It’s impossible.
‘I understand that every state has a ban on nuclear power, and we also have a federal ban on nuclear power, so those bans will have to be lifted.
Will Shackel, a young pro-nuclear activist, quickly responded on social media, arguing that nuclear plants are designed to withstand extreme conditions, including cyclones.
‘We are one of the biggest sellers of uranium in the world, but we have legislation that says you can’t even consider that, and that is completely ridiculous.
He also stated that the costs were not prohibitive.
‘I believe in climate change and I am worried about my grandchildren.
‘I think the only answer the world has to address climate change is to turn to nuclear energy, adopt it.
‘The government says it is too expensive, but I said that countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have adopted nuclear energy and they are poor countries, so it is not logical that Bangladesh can afford nuclear energy and Australia cannot.
As for nuclear waste storage, Mr Smith suggested the Olympic Dam in South Australia, which is also a well-known uranium deposit.
“I was at the Olympic Dam mine; there are huge cavities where we extracted the uranium, and that’s where we have to store the waste,” he said.
