Australia the 'Dumb Country' - can we get lucky again?

But acccording to Statista.com, nuclear reactors connected to the grid in 2022 had a median construction time of 89 months or almost 7.5 years.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) says nuclear is the world's second largest source of low-carbon power(26% of the total in 2020 and growing since then). There are 440 operating reactors, with 61 under construction.

More than 50 countries now use nuclear energy in 22 research reactors, which are also used for the production of medical and industrial isotopes, as well as for training.

This includes the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor which has operated successfully since 1958, with an update by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to an Opal Multipurpose reactor in 2007.

That's in the heart of Sydney, but I'm unaware of any three-eyed fish or mutant koalas there.

Actually, thousands of Australians have been the beneficiaries of radium treatments thanks to the Lucas Heights output.

It reminds me of the time as a young teenager, a specialist performed an operation to remove an encroaching opaque growth known as a pterygium from one of my eyes. Too much time fishing and surfing under the tropical Queensland sun, apparently, and back then radium was used to help prevent any re-growth.

After the delicate op, performed under local anaesthetic, I was still on the operating table when a nurse arrived and placed a slide containing a radiation isotope over my eye.

"I'll be back shortly," she assured me.

I closed my eyes and relaxed and I'm not sure how much time passed before she re-appeared and sounded all flustered and apologetic.

"Oh, I'm sorry I got held up and couldn't get back sooner when I should have.."

Great. Should I be worried? Should she tell the surgeon?