Nuclear the missing piece in Australia’s economic growth puzzle

Q+A is where the woke Greens hang out, watching it while tweeting to each other.

I used to watch it and tweet-it was a good way to meet the other brave like-minded souls who did the same thing-although that must have been about 10 years ago.

Since then, it's turned so far-left that even the joy of sharing the madness with other rationalists has turned to pain. But thank goodness someone rational still watches it, or I would not have seen the results of a poll they ran.

When asked "Should Australia invest in nuclear power?" 61 percent said "Yes," 31 percent "No," and seven percent were "Unsure." It appears to have been gamed since, but even when they closed it (and despite an effort to stack), the results were still 50.4 percent/46.2 percent/3.5 percent respectively.

I'm not claiming this result is representative of the whole population, but it would be representative of the Green-Left elite, where even a 50.4 percent result is revolutionary. And where that elite goes, the rest ultimately follows.

My think tank, the Australian Institute for Progress, polled on the nuclear issue in mid-2021 and found that there was more support for nuclear than the opposition, although support amongst Green and Labor voters was low. When asked for reasons why they might support nuclear, climate change was their overriding rationale.

Two years further into the energy "transition," it is clear that things are not going to plan and that more radical options need to be considered to meet policy promises.

If you believe that if the temperature rises by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since the 1800s, we are going to hit a tipping point, then you should be really worried. It's virtually impossible to find a country that is meeting this target. Certainly, none of the large emitters are.

Ticking all boxes

So what to do? The answer, per Q+A appears to be "Go nuclear young man"! Or, at the very least, think about it.

In fact, it shouldn't take a lot of thinking. Nuclear can fit into the existing grid with minimal modifications and is entirely reliable. It is much less resource-intensive than renewables, and if situated where existing coal-fired power plants are, much of the approvals work has been done.

If you use small modular reactors, then you should be able to copy the licensing regime from places with similar expectations to us where they are currently being approved, like the United States. Better still, the International Energy Agency deems nuclear as lower cost than just about anything else.