While the world slowly moves to sustainable energy sources such as hydroelectric and solar power under the political pressures of climate change, Australia lags behind most of the world in implementing nuclear power plants.
The main determining factor of this is lack of education. Australia is clear of any fault lines, making the already low risk of a nuclear meltdown even lower. There is a stigma of fear associated with nuclear energy after previous disasters in Fukushima and Chernobyl, however we have far progressed since these incidents and nuclear power is safer than ever.
An extreme misconception about nuclear energy is the “smoke” emitted from the power plants. People believe this “smoke” is pollution and contains nuclear radiation. This is a myth, and in fact, there is no smoke at all, it is completely safe water vapour.
While Australia continues to pollute the atmosphere burning coal, the rest of the world is advancing for a sustainable future. Although this is a concern, the future looks to set itself straight. Unsustainable energy sources are exactly that, unsustainable and limited. As the amount of energy resources reduces, the price will inevitably increase. It will reach a point where it makes no sense financially to use unsustainable energy sources. The market will dictate our transition to solar and nuclear power. This point will inevitable come, the question is, does the damage have to be done, and can we make changes now?
