Journalists could bone up on nuclear information
It’s true, the Canberra Press Gallery is not homogeneous (Who prepared Dutton’s report on nuclear power?, 13/6). But presumably most journalists are not scientists. The same can be said of politicians, economists and commentators of a certain persuasion, who have gone in to bat against the CSIRO’s latest costings of renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
They say science should not inform our decision as to whether we go nuclear (eg John Kehoe, AFR, 13/6).
He, and the Coalition, advocates “letting the market decide”, as if the economics of such a hugely complicated technology can be divorced from the science. To understand how it works is integral to the enormous problems involved, from preliminary work, building, running and maintenance, all the way to decommissioning and waste storage.
The CSIRO has a pretty balanced input from science and economics.
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