Australia came so close to a large nuclear industry with the Jervis Bay nuclear power station in the 1960s. You can see the proposed site & footings for it at Murrays Beach, even today. It was cancelled by Whitlam Govts in preference for coal power (!)

abc.net.au/news/2019-08-1…
We are still without a good history of the proposed Jervis Bay Nuclear Power Station. The Gorton Govt pursued it in part as a manner of making Australia a 'threshold' nuclear weapons state (which we likely are) but a proper site survey for the power station was done at Jervis Bay
Australia's concerns re UK and US reliability in view of a potential conflict with Indonesia over Konfrontasi was why we bought the (nuclear capable) F111 strike bomber while still only on a drawing board. Ironically the F111 flew over Timor in 1999(!)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_D…
So much of the delay in Australia having zero emissions nuclear power (which ironically France runs on) is because of boomer nuclear paranoia - boomers who will, like the rest of us, happily get scans and radiation therapy …
Australia has ~30% of the world’s uranium reserves and hopefully the strategic necessity of the nuclear submarine project will lead the way to us having the substantial domestic nuclear power industry that we should always have had & which McMahon & Whitlam foolishly denied us.
If anything like 57% of Australians (per a pollster) already support Australia acquiring Nuclear submarines, then it is not hard (at all) to make the case for Nuclear energy in a massive island continent that has ~30% of the world's uranium resources.
roymorgan.com/findings/8797-…
"Public attitudes towards nuclear energy have also become markedly more positive since March, with support for considering Australian nuclear energy going from just over half in March – 55 per cent – to 70 per cent after the announcement."

theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Gray Connolly

Gray Connolly Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @GrayConnolly

18 Sep
Every Australian should be getting behind this @wallabies team ... thankfully the Wallabies jersey is, again, gold, and hopefully it will never, ever, be changed again & anyone proposing any change is shackled to a scrum machine for the rest of their natural life.

#AUSvRSA Image
Hopefully, Quade Cooper is or will soon be an Australian citizen. The least he deserves, really.

#AUSvRSA
Hopefully this referee avoids the ever present temptation to play a role in the game

#AUSvRSA
Read 10 tweets
18 Sep
I joined @BishopUmbers & Dr Ruella Clipsham in a discussion on Covid, Vaccination, and Catholic teaching, hosted by the Diocese of Parramatta
@parracatholic ✝️🇻🇦 👇

Pope Francis on the obligations on Catholics to get vaccinated as an act of medical necessity for oneself & family + solidarity for one's community:

“Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable"
vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2…
Catholicism has no 'my body, my choice'. None of us is an island & what each of us does with our bodies affects others, in this case, not getting vaccinated hurts you & esp vulnerable others. So, fellow Papists, do your *extremely small part* for the Herd by getting vaccinated.
Read 4 tweets
17 Sep
Our relationship with the French will recover but, while nuke submarines are right (and 50 years overdue) for Australia, this matter was handled in a boorish & impolitic way. Esp as the French were building us a diesel version of their nuclear submarine

theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence…
I did a thread a few days ago on the Barracuda submarines themselves - our next generation of submarines should always have been nuclear boats, and wisdom suggests we have the French tender for that, along with the UK & US:

Australia has had (and always will have) an intimate defence & security relationship with the UK & USA. But we also have close defence relations with the French, Japan, Israel, Singapore, Korea, Gulf Kingdoms, etal. We do not have to choose here. They are all Allies as well.
Read 7 tweets
17 Sep
Good morning all & OTD in 1944, Operation Market Garden began: a daring plan for airborne landings behind German lines to secure the River Rhine crossings, which would be secured by an Allied armoured thrust to liberate Holland & secure bridges which, sadly, would be 'too far' ImageImageImageImage
Market Garden’s failure was a rare Intelligence driven failure. The actual combatants fought with extraordinary bravery to try and bring a swift end to the war. All the Allied paratroopers should be very proud of their history, how bravely they fought, and what....almost....was Image
Excellent map of Op Market Garden AO. The irony of General Student's own Fallschirmjäger paratroopers to East. An ambitious plan that failed because of Intelligence & Plans not thinking through the 'known unknowns'. Weird given Allied experiences of the German defences to date. Image
Read 4 tweets
16 Sep
Welcome to the Sydney Lockdown day 84 ….

[Royal Botanic Gardens and the Sydney Opera House]

#Covid19NSW #SydneyLockdown Image
Absent some good faith excuse or medical reason, I cannot comprehend why any medical/healthcare worker would not be fully vaccinated already.

#Covid19NSW #SydneyLockdown

news.com.au/national/nsw-a…
One of many reasons that vaccination was always a race, contra Morrison, is this - rolling out vaccines en masse and speedily means you do not enter September with this occurring
#Covid19NSW #SydneyLockdown

smh.com.au/national/nsw/u…
Read 6 tweets
15 Sep
My only comment on Submarines is that the French Barracuda we were buying operates as a nuclear submarine. We (insanely) wanted a special diesel version. At some point the nuclear Gordian Knot exists to be cut. We need a much larger domestic nuclear industry esp nuclear power.
The French pitched a diesel electric version of a very good nuclear submarine that they build and operate.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barracuda…
No one is a stronger supporter of our UK/US alliance than 'moi' but we will needlessly insult the French (who are very reliable and capable allies in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East) unless this is handled very delicately
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(