Nukes Too Hot to Handle

Labor Left Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, is providing ongoing evidence that the faction's core policy platforms are as soluble as the uranium ore being leach-mined in the State's north. His long-running pitch to the electorate to support a nuclear waste dump has been defeated by a citizens jury, abandoned by the opposition and treated with skepticism by industry but he is now proposing a state referendum on the issue.

The Premier appears to be pandering to the Labor Right as if his political life depends on it, while commentators continue to paint the government's nuclear campaign as a deliberate distraction from the poor economic performance of the state. Much time and attention has been lavished on the proposal while the real issues surrounding our energy future remain relatively unexamined.

In the state's far north, on the edge of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the Flinder's Ranges, the pathways ahead diverge. Virtually side by side by side are Australia's only operating acid-leaching uranium mine and our world leading geo-thermal electricity experiment. Adelaide based company, Petratherm, has plans to create a clean energy precinct combining geo-thermal energy with wind, solar and gas to provide a reliable source of electricity rooted in the hot rocks deep below the surface. Meanwhile Beverly and Roxby Downs continue to extract uranium for a global energy industry that creates issues (and waste) that are patently too hot to handle!