Gas shortages loom as power bills to rise by 31!

What alternate options are available for long term Reliable Baseload Power?

Gas shortages loom as power bills to rise by up to 31%
What alternate options are available for long term Reliable Baseload Power?

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS?

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE) is a Learned Academy of around 900 independent, non-political experts. ATSE’s view is that there should be a national dialogue about nuclear energy, rather than it being dismissed due to a legislative ban. ATSE recognises that nuclear energy can only be pursued with community consent, and that any market activity should take place within clearly defined regulatory parameters, but it needs consideration as part of the energy mix. The risks of nuclear energy should be considered against the health and environmental costs of fossil fuels.               
Source: ATSE submission to the Low Emissions Technology Statement 2022 consultation, 6 February 2022

Interesting facts...

• As of May 2022, there were 439 nuclear reactors in operation in some 30 countries around the world. Ref, “Published by Statista Research Department, Jan 30, 2023”
• As of May 2022, there were 53 nuclear reactors under construction worldwide.

Source: Published by Statista Research Department, Jan 25, 2023

• Since 1970 it is estimated that nuclear power has saved 72 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Ref, “Published by downtoearth.org.in/news/renewable-energy/nuclear-energy, Tuesday 02 November 2021”
• The first nuclear power plant was commissioned in 1954 and decommissioned in 2002 after 48 years of operation with no radioactive release to the environment.

Source: Published by Peter Kaiser & Michael Madsen, IAEA Division of Public Information

• Nuclear Power INCIDENTS - 
  
  1. 1957 Cumberland (now Cumbria), UK. Human error - Caused 200 cancer deaths.
     
  2. 1961 Idaho Falls was due to human caused the reactor to go critical, caused 3 deaths.                                                                       
     
  3. 1979 Three Mile Island was due to human error with no release of radioactivity,

      It was contained due to high safety factors.

• 1986 Chernobyl was due directly to the breakup of the old USSR. It had no maintenance, and the plant was falling apart.
• 2011 Fukushima was due to extremely poor site planning by building a nuclear power plant at sea level in a region with regular history of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Source: Published by Union of Concerned Scientists, Oct 1, 2013
 
Australia needs reliable 'Baseload Power' or our society, communities, industries will struggle to survive through power shortages, blackouts and higher power prices.

Definition: Baseload Power refers to generation resources that generally run continuously throughout the year and operate at stable output levels. The continuous operation of baseload resources makes economic sense because they have low running costs relative to other sources of power. The value of baseload plants is mostly economic, and not related to their ability to follow the constantly varying system demand. Baseload plants include coal-fired and gas-fired combined-cycle power plants.(Source:https://arena.gov.au/blog/national-energy-market/).

Author - Paul Sedman