Policy Challenge: Nuclear Power

We're a technology positive, and scientistic party. So an anti-nuclear stance might seem a little at odds with this. However, we're very pro clean energy solutions, and those involve some of the best technology on the planet.

Is it possible that new nuclear power plant technology is safe enough that it might be considered safe even in a full scale kinetic war involving the use of inter-continental ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons?

Great powers China and the US both have comprehensive nuclear energy programs. China's ever expanding nuclear energy program boasts the most reactors of any nation in the world. Both China and the US are at risk of being involved in possible regional and global conflicts - including with each other, and including large scale kinetic warfare. How do their respective governments justify so many potentially volatile installations that do not go together well with either direct kinetic attacks, or with conditions associated with conflict zones?

Certainly the US must have to consider such risks in the wake of the terror attacks of 9-11 (regardless of who is actually responsible for the destruction of the WTC twin towers). And that's apart from the question of natural disasters like the tsunami that caused the Fukishima plant meltdown in Japan.

Aside from the question of proximal kinetic war, there is also the problem of failures of management and failures to anticipate conditions that might precipitate nuclear reactor core meltdowns. For example, the Fukishima disaster occured because tsunami waters destroyed the generators that powered the plant's cooling system.

Whether or not the events that caused the Fukishima disaster were foreseable or not, they do seem to be an object lesson in how easily things can go wrong. Both nature, and human incompetence, are capable of serving up an enormous array of possible problems for nuclear reactors.

Is new reactor technology good enough to change the realities and the narrative regarding the safety of nuclear reactors? Could Australia benefit from China's Hualong One nuclear plant technology?

Reactors built with Hualong One designs also adopt a double-layer safety shell that can withstand the impact of a Boeing airplane.

"It is almost impossible that a Fukushima-style accident will happen in China," Xue said.

At the Japanese plant, tsunami waves swamped the backup generators needed to keep coolant pumps running, and the loss of coolant caused three of the plant's six reactors to melt down. The Hualong One sets a water tank above the reactor that can be gravity-fed to keep it cool.

Like its major competitors, China is now developing the fourth generation of nuclear power technology, which could further minimize the likelihood of accidents, and has better economic performance and less nuclear waste, Xue said. (Source)

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