Political, Legal and Bureaucratic Hurdles for Nuclear Energy in Australia

In 1998 John Howard struck a deal with the Greens, to build a medical and research reactor ANSTO at Lucas Heights, in exchange for a ban on other nuclear reactors in Australia. The ANSTO reactor medical isotopes have saved millions of lives through radiation treatments and scanning isotopes over the past twenty years.

Neither the Greens nor John Howard were aware at the time, that global warming was occurring due to human induced climate change. And they also weren’t aware of an imperative that Australia would need to pivot away from its reliance on coal, oil and gas.

As a legacy of their deal in 1998, Australia finds itself stifled in a series of federal and state bans on the development of nuclear energy. Coupled with this, are rusted-on anti-nuclear
activists, the big end of town renewable energy speculators, bureaucrats and even the CSIRO that form the backbone of a very robust and well-resourced anti-nuclear movement.

Not to be outdone, Wokes and mainstream media, have up until now, shared an unreasonable, fear based narrative, without being more objective and informed.

Australians deserve better, not to be manipulated by three-eyed fish, concerns over design flaws in a Russian reactor from the 1960s, and fear mongering over spent nuclear fuel storage, despite it being managed effectively at 440 sites around the world.