Australian philanthropist and businessman Dick Smith believes there is no time to waste when it comes to rethinking the country’s stance on nuclear power.
So when she received an email from Lachlan Kidd, a young sixth-grader from Sydney, asking if she could come to his school to discuss the issue, she decided to beat the traffic and make a quick visit.
It was then that Daily Mail Australia learned that the keen aviator had been spotted landing his helicopter on an oval at The King’s School in the west of the city on Friday.
“What happened was I received information from Lachlan, a 12-year-old boy, about nuclear energy,” Smith told Daily Mail Australia when asked about the sighting.
‘His class had been studying nuclear energy and they wanted him to come and talk about it.
‘He’s a very smart boy and the work his class had been doing seemed pretty amazing.
‘I decided to go by helicopter because I had already given a talk there before with Cate Blanchett and there is plenty of space for my helicopter to land.
‘I think it is nothing short of criminal that the silver bullet that could solve our country’s energy problems is even illegal to discuss, it is simply ridiculous, and that needs to change as soon as possible.
Dick Smith hopped in a helicopter after receiving an email from a sixth-grade student and went to give a lecture to his class about nuclear energy.
The billionaire philanthropist says he paid a flying visit to the school because he feels it is important to engage in serious conversations with the next generation of Australians.
The helicopter is Dick Smith’s preferred mode of transportation when there’s no time to waste.
‘So instead of driving for an hour in traffic, I took my helicopter to my home in Terrey Hills and was there in seven minutes.
‘I explained to the children: “In a helicopter there is no speed limit, no traffic lights, no radar, so I’m going 280 km/h.”
“I went out and gave a 25-minute talk about how we should have (nuclear power) on the agenda – it really should be on the table – and I just landed back home in Terrey Hills about 10 minutes ago.”
Despite his busy schedule, Mr Smith said he felt it was important to take time to engage with the next generation of young Australians on critical issues relating to renewable energy and its future.
“The nuclear issue is incredibly important to our children,” she said. “I believe in climate change and I am concerned about my grandchildren.
‘I think the only answer for the world to address climate change is to embrace nuclear power and embrace it.
‘Thirty-one countries already have nuclear weapons, as I explained to the schoolchildren, and it is the silver bullet. It is the way to solve our problem.
‘And we have a government that says not only can’t you have it, but that you can’t even put it on the table.
‘I explained to the boys that it wasn’t logical.
‘The government says it is too expensive, but I said countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have adopted nuclear power and they are poor countries, so it is not logical that Bangladesh can afford nuclear power and Australia cannot.
“This just doesn’t meet the common sense test,” I explained to the boys.
It was a message that appears to have found a receptive audience.
“At the end of the discussion we voted on nuclear energy and I think about 90% of the children agreed,” he said.
‘They are only 12 years old today, and they are not old enough to vote, but they are the next generation that will take this country forward.
“That’s why I’m a strong supporter of young people like Will Shackel, an 18-year-old student from Brisbane who is pushing to legalise nuclear power and has posted a petition on a website called Nuclear for Australia.”
Mr Smith criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s anti-nuclear stance during an interview with Shackel, the founder of Australia’s first youth-led campaign in favour of nuclear power, earlier this year.
While the Liberal Party proposes establishing a nuclear industry in Australia, Labor and the Greens strongly oppose it and prefer renewable energy sources to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Mr. Smith says he supports the advocacy of nuclear power by equally young activist Will Shackel.
It is not the first time Mr Smith has landed his chopper on a school oval in recent years.
Mr Smith said Mr Albanese’s opposition was misguided and negatively affected Australia’s youth.
“Please look at this objectively, because I think this is the only answer for the future and we need to do something as quickly as possible,” Smith said.
“We won’t be there when problems occur.”
His comments came after Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen previously admitted that to meet the government’s net-zero emissions target, Australia would need to install 40 large wind turbines a month and 22,000 solar panels a day.
Patricia McKenzie, chair of AGL, the country’s largest coal-fired power generator and CO2 emitter, warned in 2022 that the National Electricity Market would need around 98 gigawatts of new capacity to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree threshold to accelerate the closure of its coal-fired power plants.
He said new capacity would be needed by 2030 to “keep the lights on,” which would put “unacceptable pressure on energy security and affordability.”
Australia has added only about 2.2 GW of capacity in each of the past five years.
Mr Smith said it was unrealistic to expect renewable energy could supply all of Australia’s power as coal was being phased out and gas remained a backup source until 2050.
Smith became the first person to fly solo around the world in a helicopter in the 1980s. Above, the Dick Smith Australian Explorer
“I’ve always thought renewables were fantastic, but common sense tells me you can’t run an entire country on renewables. If you could, I’d support it, but I’m absolutely sure you can’t,” he said.
“It’s never been done anywhere in the world and to be able to run that industry, transport, hospitals and everything continuously, with wind and sun. It would be wonderful if it were possible, but it’s not.”
Mr Smith revealed he has a way of solving the contentious nuclear waste problem, saying it could be stored at the military-restricted Olympic Dam mine in northern South Australia.
‘If you go down to the mine, you will see that there are huge caverns where the uranium ore has been extracted and we could store our waste there in complete safety.’
Mr Smith said France uses nuclear power for 70 per cent of its electricity and waste is stored at power stations.
Do you receive warnings not to go to France? Of course not, it is a very safe place.
Mr Smith revealed that it was in fact Labor’s longest-serving prime minister, Bob Hawke, who converted him to the nuclear cause on Australia Day 1988 at Kirribilli House.
Mr Dutton’s coalition has backed the creation of a nuclear power industry in Australia, although it has remained relatively silent on the issue since unveiling its policy earlier this year.
‘Bob Hawke said to me, ‘Dick, you’re going to be against nuclear power,’ and I said no, because I was helping Bob Brown and the blockade and I was known as an environmentalist.’
Bob said, “We have to go nuclear, it’s so obvious.”
‘And here’s the Labour Prime Minister, one of the most famous and best Labour Prime Ministers, telling me I should support nuclear power.’
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said nuclear power had the potential to reduce electricity prices and achieve zero carbon emissions.
“Coal-fired generators can be replaced by smaller modular reactors or by larger modular reactors,” he said.
‘The latest technology has zero emissions, lower costs and means power can be distributed over the existing electricity grid.
“It means that there is reliability to consolidate renewable energies in the system.”