Jordan Peterson jumps on the nuclear bandwagon for Australia

Controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has accused the Left of sacrificing the poor to play politics, saying nuclear reactors must play a part in the future of energy.

Canadian author and psychologist Jordan Peterson has told an audience of Coalition and One Nation MPs that modular nuclear reactors and natural gas are the key to lifting people out of poverty, and that Australians must avoid “the lurking potential catastrophes that are associated with this completely fabricated energy crisis in Europe”.

Speaking at Parliament House on Thursday, Dr Peterson accused the left of being willing to sacrifice the poor for political purposes.

“If the left has the opportunity to, let’s say, save the planet, or serve the poor, they’ll instantly pick save the planet,” he said.

“And then if they have the opportunity to pick save the planet or destroy capitalism, they will instantly pick destroy capitalism.”

“If you’re willing to sacrifice poor people to your environmental delusions, there’s something wrong with you,” he said, adding that “modular nuclear” and liquid natural gas would have to be a major part of the world’s ongoing energy mix.

Jordan Peterson, speaking at Parliament House, said that nations like Australia should use nuclear power to help the poor and avoid energy crises.

Mr Peterson’s comments were echoed later in the day at forum to promote nuclear energy as a part of Australia’s energy mix.

Former ANSTO chief Adrian Paterson said “modern small modular reactors should absolutely be adopted in Australia in order to provide reliable, predictable and safe energy for our grid.

An artist’s impression of a NuScale small modular reactor. Picture: NuScale

“Nuclear power absolutely stacks up economically, because what you want is predictable, always-on power,” Mr Paterson said.

“One of the things about why it is so difficult to rely on intermittent renewable source s of powers is that it doesn’t stack up 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“We are living in an era where we are trying to take carbon out of our energy supply, and then we need electricity for our cars and other things with a high penetration of renewables.”

“But the physics and engineering just don’t support that,” he said.

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Originally published as Jordan Peterson jumps on the nuclear bandwagon for Australia