Des Houghton: Why Bill Gates backs Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan

Peter Dutton has hijacked Labor’s climate change agenda in spectacular fashion with a compelling nuclear power strategy that may save the planet, writes Des Houghton, and he has the backing of one of the world’s richest men.

Peter Dutton and his gung-ho climate change wingman Ted O’Brien pushed the nuclear button and blew up the Labor Party. That’s what it looks like to me after reading opinion polls showing overwhelming support for nuclear power.

The Opposition Leader’s audacious plan for seven government-owned nuclear reactors has added benefits.

It could spell the end of Labor’s environmentally destructive and uncosted strategy to cut through precious farmland and rainforests to lay 28,000km of transmission lines for unreliable wind, solar and hydro renewables.

And the Dutton plan must surely be good news for our treasured Great Barrier Reef, which is suffering the ill effects of climate change.

Friends of the Left including Barack Obama have backed a nuclear power solution to reduce the carbon footprint.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has recently echoed the pro-nuclear sentiments espoused by Dutton and his shadow climate change and energy minister O’Brien.

Gates believes next-generation nuclear power plants like those proposed by Dutton will “revolutionise” how power is generated.

The Microsoft co-founder put his money where his mouth is by tossing a billion dollars into TerraPower LLC, a nuclear reactor design and development engineering start-up.

TerraPower – chaired by Gates – recently started to build a reactor at Kemmerer, a small town in Wyoming in the US.

Leader of the Liberal Party Peter Dutton. Picture:NewsWire/ Monique Harmer

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should go and take a look. And he should take his floundering Climate and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, with him.

Gates was at the Kemmerer groundbreaking earlier this month and told the crowd they were “standing on what will soon be the bedrock of America’s energy future.” And Australia’s, perhaps.

Gates added: “This is a big step toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy.

“And it’s important for the future of this country that projects like this succeed.”

The next-generation reactors typically use a coolant other than water and operate at lower pressures and higher temperatures.

Gates has told US media that his Wyoming plant will be a simpler, cheaper reactor to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the world transition away from coal, oil and gas.

The US Department of Energy was so impressed with TerraPower it purchased a $2bn stake in the company. Gates says he has a couple more billion in kitty just in case the project needs a top up.

TerraPower is going full throttle to develop large reactors, small modular reactors like those proposed for Australia, and portable micro-reactors.

Surely there are lessons in Wyoming for Australia?

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has recently echoed the pro-nuclear sentiments espoused by Dutton. Picture: Yana Paskova/Getty Images/AFP

Gates says next-generation reactors are safe and kinder to the environment than conventional, water-cooled nuclear plants. They use simpler and less costly unpressurised coolants and vents not dependent on electricity to halt fission during an emergency.

The action begins when advanced uranium fuel is covered with liquid sodium. A chain reaction starts when uranium atoms split. The liquid sodium is used to cover the plant’s core and safely transfer heat for power production. The molten salts create pressurised steam that runs the turbines producing electricity.

Is a new steam age beckoning?

TerraPower says the amount of electricity generated can be turned up or down to meet demand.

Gates, like Dutton and O’Brien, says nuclear power in the early stages must work in tandem with renewables.

He told the International Atomic Energy Commission that TerraPower’s reactor was designed to ramp up when wind and solar power was not available. Nuclear plants keep working at night and when the wind stops blowing.

TerraPower says its relatively small 345-megawatt plant will be able to power 345,000 homes.

At peak capacity it will generate 500 megawatts, enough for 500,000 homes.

The plants have a lifespan of 90 years and produce zero emissions. Activists who genuinely want to save the Great Barrier Reef should back the Coalition’s plan.

They won’t, of course, because they have been brainwashed by the green-left.

With seemingly unbounding benevolence, Gates is looking over the horizon and says he wants to see the reactors in Africa as well as the rich countries.

The Dutton-O’Brien model proposed to build reactors on defunct power stations. Terra Power is doing just that.

The Wyoming plant is next door to Naughton Power Plant, which is set to stop burning coal in 2026 by switching to natural gas until the Terra Power reactor is operating in 2032. In all, 250 power plant workers will be retrained in the nuclear energy sector.

Nuclear power gained popularity as a cleaner energy source in the US during the term of President Barack Obama. With support from Republicans, the Obama administration released billions in research funding. Obama backed research into smaller nuclear reactors he said would help the carbon footprints made by fossil fuels.

With the threat of blackouts in Australia it is clear renewables alone will not provide enough power to keep the lights on or the wheels of industry turning.

Dutton has hijacked the ALP-Green agenda. He is suddenly in a good place to fight the next election. It looks to me like the Labor Party and the Greens have been left behind. They will look foolish if they continue to oppose safe nuclear power reactors. Dutton says power stations at Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell and Mount Piper in NSW, Port Augusta and South Australia, Loy Yang in Victoria and Muja in Western Australia will have reactors under a government he leads. In his speech, Dutton said nuclear reactors will cost a fraction of the government’s wasteful $1.3 trillion dollar plan to reach impossible zero emission targets. Labor, of course, has disputed the figures but won’t provide any of its own.

Dutton’s move has also left the Queensland government’s energy strategy under a cloud.

O’Brien was rebuked by Speaker Milton Dick and tossed out of the House of Reps when he attempted to ask what I thought were reasonable questions about Labor’s grandiose and secretive pumped hydro plants. Dick ruled the question out of order,
a bit of censorship in my opinion.

WE SHOULDN’T FORGET THE HARM DONE BY ASSANGE

(Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Forgive me, but I won’t be joining the media cheer squad for Julian Assange, the Townsville-born hacker turned dissident who founded WikiLeaks.

We should not gloss over the harm done when Assange wilfully leaked vast amounts of military secrets that may ultimately have cost the lives of Allied troops and their informants whose cover was blown.

The unlawful posts were a gift to our enemies – including ­Russia, the Taliban and IS. More than a decade ago – on this page – I shared report from The Sun in London revealing the underground allies whose identities were unmasked – and who were rounded up by the Taliban and executed. Assange, 53, remains a tragic figure who I suppose deserves a little sympathy for his self-inflicted pain. That said, I nearly puked over the gushing welcome he got from Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong.

They should not forget Assange pleaded guilty to a felony charge of violating the US Espionage Act to secure his freedom.

I remind my West-hating colleagues, who love besmirching the USA at every chance they get, that Assange did not win.

Originally published as Des Houghton: Why Bill Gates backs Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan