Professor Anthony Thomas breaks down nuclear power giving an expert point of view

A leading mind on nuclear energy has answered a series of questions that have emerged as the debate rages. HAVE YOUR SAY.

Professor Anthony Thomas

Australian Laureate Fellow & Elder Prof of Physics

Is nuclear energy dangerous?

I believe reactors can be operated safely. Let’s face it, France lives on nuclear power, and a lot of their neighbours use it, even though they backed off from it for a while. There have been very few accidents. Actually, nobody talks about the fact that a coal burning plant releases an enormous amount of radioactivity because there are small amounts of radioactive material in the coal, and that gets released when it’s burnt.

The CNPE de Nogent -sur-Seine Power station in France

How could the Australian public be convinced?

The Australian people are suspicious of nuclear power, some for poor reasons and others for good reasons. I think Australia could operate nuclear reactors safely, but I think for people to trust it, it needs a different sort of system, mainly an oversight committee that’s independent of the government and operators of the power plant, that has the duty to look at what’s happening and tell people what can go wrong.

Is it reliable?

Absolutely. It runs, it can be turned up and down as you need it, so it can run with renewables.

The Ringhals nuclear power plant in Varberg on the southeast coast of Sweden. Picture Bjorn LARSSON ROSVALL / TT News Agency / AFP) / Sweden OUT

What would change for me if I’m living near a nuclear reactor?

I think that if you had the sort of oversight committee that I talked about with people, local people that you trust, informing you that the place is being properly maintained and operated. I think you would be quite happy. I don’t see a problem.

Why doesn’t Australia already have nuclear energy?

That was all politics. The country wanted to make money by selling uranium, but there was a huge lobby worried about anything nuclear, and to pacify them, these laws were passed which make it impossible to even start construction of a nuclear power plant? But it was purely politics, no rationality. It was more that public worry about nuclear power. I guess it was still the time when the Cold War was on, so people mistakenly equate nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

What about nuclear waste?

At the present time there is no satisfactory solution to the problem of dealing with the waste from nuclear reactors but serious dedicated research could very well provide a solution.

The nuclear waste storage pool of Orano la Hague, a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, in La Hague, northwestern France (Photo by DAMIEN MEYER / AFP)

Originally published as Professor Anthony Thomas breaks down nuclear power giving an expert point of view