Word: coal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...familiarity displaces fear overseas, rising demand for electricity and concerns about the environmental costs of getting it from coal and gas are prompting many Australians to rethink their prejudice against nuclear power. Physicist Martin Sevior, who led a recent study of the issue at the University of Melbourne, believes "there is a credible case for nuclear power plants," provided Australia adopts lessons learned elsewhere. According to zoologist Tim Flannery, whose book The Weather Makers calls for urgent action on climate change, if Australia replaced all of its coal-fired plants with nuclear ones, "we would have done something great...
...panel of experts to do just that. But the Labor Party and most environmental groups insist the only right answer on nuclear is no. "No nuclear power in Australia. That's our position," said Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, who wants more effort put into solar, wind and clean-coal technologies. With the debate set to generate a lot more heat before it's over, here's a brief look at the issues that fuel...
...Environment. Nuclear power's image makeover began when James Lovelock-the British scientist whose "Gaia" theory likens the Earth to a living organism-declared nuclear power "the only green solution" to the world's energy needs. The coal-fired power plants that generate 80% of Australia's electricity produce huge quantities of carbon dioxide, which bears much of the blame for global warming. Nuclear plants produce almost no CO2. According to the csiro, replacing three of Australia's 24 coal plants with nuclear ones would cut carbon emissions from power generation by almost...
...technologies will soon make it possible to burn coal-of which Australia has a 300-year supply-with a minimal release of carbon dioxide. Victoria, Queensland and the federal government have pledged almost $A1 billion to develop these technologies, which could make coal-fired plants as greenhouse-friendly as nuclear ones...
...should be the focus of energy planning. Nuclear advocates point out that reactors are compact and don't require damming rivers or defacing rural landscapes. For the same output, they say, a solar panel array or wind farm would need 200-500 times as much land as an average coal or nuclear plant. Also, because wind-farm and solar outputs fluctuate, they must be backed up by coal, hydro or nuclear power...