13 thoughts on “Weekend reflections”

  1. Lord Downer, the hero of Bagdhad, is going
    to Dili    . Haven’t they suffered enough? What good will an exercise in pomposity do?

    Perhaps ít’s a cunning trick to unite the warring factions against a common enemy.

  2. I notice that OPEC has yet again affirmed that the high price of crude oil has nothing to do with supply and demand. The press release from the recent Venezuela meeting says:

    “Having reviewed the oil market situation and its immediate prospects, the Conference observed that fundamentals have stayed unchanged since its last review, with the market continuing to be over supplied and commercial crude and product stocks remaining at comfortable levels in terms of days of forward cover. The Conference also noted that, similarly, world crude oil prices continued to remain high and volatile as a consequence of abiding concern over the lack of effective global oil refining capacity, in the short and medium term, coupled with anxiety about the ability of oil producers to meet anticipated, future oil demand. This price volatility is being exacerbated by geopolitical developments and speculation in the oil futures markets.”

    I take “anticipated future oil demand” to be a reference to the future, not the present.

  3. I see Alexander Downer has thrown a his nuclear hat in the ring in the nuclear mining capital of Australia.
    http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19351408-1246,00.html?from=rss
    As I heard this morning a 500 MW coal fired power station puts out 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide pa cf about 20 tons for the same nuclear power station. Downer is throwing down a further challenge to the left greens, when he argues that a nuclear power driven desalination plant could save 75% of SA’s draw from the dying Murray. Looks like the debate is hotting up in the driest state in the driest continent at the end of the iconic Snowy scheme. I wonder what iconic scheme we in the uranium state could cook up next?

  4. Nuclear desalination to save the Coorong home of Storm Boy and to boot we might be hosing our driveways to the envious glances of our wetter state cousins. The irony of the term- economic dry.

  6. John, could you add a feature to this blog which causes it not to save the name/email of the submitter? I sometimes view it from public computers which are locked down from quitting the browser, let alone manually deleting the cookies. So it’d be nice if your webpage could do it.

    (I post this partly to get rid of the name, hence the name/email.)

  7. It should be noted that Coal fired power stations emit radioactive waste into the atmosphere.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal

    “Coal also contains many trace elements, including arsenic and mercury, which are dangerous if released into the environment. Coal also contains low levels of uranium, thorium, and other naturally-occurring radioactive isotopes whose release into the environment may lead to radioactive contamination.[7][8] While these substances are trace impurities, enough coal is burned that significant amounts of these substances are released, paradoxically resulting in more radioactive waste than nuclear power.”

  8. Babcock and Brown Wind Partners in SA has also announced a $400mill expansion of the Lake Bonney wind farm near Millicent in the SE. It will add 53 more turbines on 80M high towers to the 46 existing turbines on 67M towers at present. This will produce 159 MW of power to supply around 130,000 homes and will make it the biggest facility in Australia.

    However, this was the wind farm that failed in last January’s heat wave when a turbine caught fire and the excessive heat caused overload protection to shut all the turbines down at the very time of peak aircon demand. As well firefighters could not fight the fire on the 67M high towers. Bad luck too if it’s hot and still. Of course a nuclear power station could take the place of this power source, while this sort of unreliable renewable energy source, could be used for water desalination purposes.

  9. And as Terje rightly points out a nuclear power station would reduce radioactive emissions, at the same time reducing CO2 emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons a year. We know from ANSTO it’s economic with coal fired power now and with the current burning of Leigh Creek brown coal in SA what are we waiting for?

  11. I think Observa and Terje are in the wrong thread – try “Time to go Nuclear? (repost)” of 28 May. And don’t believe all the promises of Liberal politicians.

  13. And as Terje rightly points out a nuclear power station would reduce radioactive emissions, at the same time reducing CO2 emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons a year.

    Nuclear power stations may reduce radioactive emissions realite to coal fired power stations (or they may not), however that is not what I said. I merely point out that Coal fired power stations emmit considerable ratioactive waste into the atmosphere.

    I think Observa and Terje are in the wrong thread – try “Time to go Nuclear? (repost)â€? of 28 May. And don’t believe all the promises of Liberal politicians.

    Contrary to what you may think I am not a big advocate of nuclear power.

Leave a comment