A Nuclear-Free Future - by Giovanni Ebono (IV4.4)

Australia is engaged in a debate about our energy future. The Prime Ministerial Taskforce, chaired by deposed Telstra CEO, Ziggy Switkowski, has recommended 25 nuclear power plants along Australia’s eastern seaboard to provide electrical energy as an alternative to burning coal.

The Labor party heads towards its national conference this April with its nuclear policy undecided. The environmental arm of the ALP is opposed by those anxious to assure the financial and mining sector that they will not ‘wreck the economy’ by taking a ‘radical position on uranium mining’.

Average Australians look on, bewildered by the political grandstanding and religious zeal. Should we profit from 40% of the world’s uranium deposits? How are we going to manage poisonous nuclear waste that lasts for millions of years? Where are those 25 nuclear power stations going to be built?