Brett Look at all the wrinkles!

Mylene “Of course we shluod be considering it [nuclear power]… but we shluod also be considering geothermal”. The way O'Kane frames this comment is a perfect illustration of the way the question of nuclear power is framed in general, that is, with the implicit assumption that a proposition which includes nuclear power must somehow automatically mean that renewables will be excluded. Why do answers on nuclear power always have to be qualified with warnings' that renewables must also be pursued? I wonder, is this because (in Australia) pro-nuclear sectors of the community have traditionally been right wing and the right is thought to reject renewables (and all that renewables have traditionally stood for on the left); or is it because they fear nuclear power's efficacy will render the pursuit of the various renewable alternatives' unnecessary? Perhaps it's a little of both. Historically speaking, there is some truth to the first of these concerns, but we must somehow make it clear that, like nuclear power, renewables are just tools and that in both cases their adoption as representatives for this or that political ideal is mere symbolism. Neither tool can deliver us the kind of societies we want if your, or my, idealised future does not marry with the desired future society of the majority. For example, if renewables are being built and deployed by the likes of Rio Tinto, AREVA and BP with the intention of supplying the needs of modern western societies whose populations number in the billions, then they are not going to deliver us a decentralised, small scale, low population, friendly, inclusive world of eco-villages. On the other hand if everyone does want a low population, small scale, low environmental impact society then small modular reactors would be a useful adjunct to the change.As to the second concern I don't know that a grid which is supplied by 100% nuclear power would actually be ideal. I believe load following is made much easier if one has at least one other generator type which can quickly respond to changes in demand. As such, I imagine geothermal would be the the perfect compliment to nuclear power in the SA grid and the two most certainly would not be mutually exclusive.