Of course, that's avoiding the real debate entirely - is uranium
mining and nuclear power really the environmental disaster "greenies"
make it out to be? I mean, yes, Greenpeace are still strongly opposed
to it, claiming that nuclear waste is simply an unnacceptable risk,
but they have their own politics to maintain.

Personally, (and I'm not a nuclear research scientist, just an
electrical engineering student) it seems to me that while current
nuclear reactors are unnacceptably inefficient, we have the technology
to improve that by around 100 times (have a read about Fast Breeder
Reactors) - which would see a corresponding decrease in the amount of
nuclear waste produced. I calculated, for an Engineering Communication
class, that such reactors could power Australia on just 25 tonnes of
uranium per year. That's a cube about 25cm on a side (uranium is 19
times more dense than water) - sounds pretty managable to me.

(If there are any nuclear research scientists on the list who want to
tell me why I'm wrong, I'd like to hear it, but it should probably go
off list)

While I disagree with much of their policy, I'm certain that the
Labour Party employ some very clever people. Maybe, at the end of the
day, Pete is acting based on expert advice? I don't know. Probably
not, something tells me that the Environment is always subordinate to
the Treasury, but that's just my cynicism.

- Chris

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 10:38 PM, Frosty!<frostyvesper@gmail.com> wrote:

I think this was a great article. My first thought when the Uranium mine
lease was extended was that Garrett has to abide by Government policy (and
possibly legislation) which would say if the application conforms, the lease
must be granted. If Garrett believed the lease should (or could) be denied
he would have to make a motion in parliament. Just because he's the Minister
for the Environment doesn't mean he can do what he wants.

I've always felt these calls
of 'sell out' were very short sighted. Watch everyone change their tune when he does have to draw that line in the sand.
Frosty