All Activity

It's amazing, there's been no further power outages here since One Nation won that Fed seat a little while ago. I'm not even in that seat. Not only that, I've received a Notice of Disruption due to maintenance where as before there was no notices, power went off for 6 hours and that was it. The Independent here must be scared stiff of O.N.

Close enough Nev, the thumbs up is "Good", so it's Good things come to those who wait.

All things come to those who wait. Nev

Both correct.

The Tension Mounts. Nev

Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree

Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree.

Correct.

As I understand, submarines use weapons grade enrichment. Heaps of spare current reactor fuel by the time it is down blended. Sweden have recently started building underground storage as well.

The only permanent Nuclear waste facility I know of is Finlands Onkalo, meaning "cave" in Finnish, the facility is carved 430 meters (1,411 feet) below the surface in 1.9-billion-year-old stable bedrock near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. It securely stores spent nuclear fuel using a unique multi-barrier system. It took over 20 years to build & can store 6500 tonnes of spent uranium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkalo_spent_nuclear_fuel_repository About 400,000 tones of high level waste exists globally with about 12,000 tonnes added each year. Meanwhile there are scores of decommissioned Nuclear submarines in storage awaiting the waste from their reactors to be removed and stored. The UK has 23, The US & Russia have not disclosed numbers or where the waste is stored. Is there a plan to dispose of the waste from the Aukus nuclear subs?

From the Guardian...

I think this article says more about Sam Neill than most I've seen. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jul/14/sam-neill-new-zealand-remembers-local-star

Fantasy Island

Interesting video on the make up of spent fuel. This bloke also has interesting videos.

As far as the grid forming inverters go, I was talking about black start capability as in at Broken Hill when they had the blackout. They had all the wind and solar but the part on the inverters for black start hadn't been commissioned. It would have been a good opportunity to test it. We can store the waste, the facilities still need to be built. Again the more we do the better we will get. Meanwhile it is just sitting on site getting less dangerous every day. I enjoy this blokes videos even though he exaggerates how dangerous the long lived waste is. A uranium fuel pellet can be held in your hand with no protection. Technicians wear cotton gloves to protect the pellet from the oils on your hand. These 2 elements have half lives of millions of years as was quoted in the video. Generally the longer the half life the less dangerous it is. I wouldn't eat it though. The amount is always quoted in tonnes. A lot of the spent fuel is still U238 which weighs approx. 20 times the weight of water so the actual volume is a lot less than you would think.

P, Rhett, Tea As(s), A, Picture Pretty as a picture

Thank you. I was about to ask, 'If NP waste disposal has been solved, why is there so much of it still sitting around in drums at the power stations?' Thanks for finding the facts for me.

I think this might be a little optimistic. Global stockpiles of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel exceed 320,000 tonnes currently in storage, with another 120,000+ tonnes having been reprocessed. The vast majority of this material sits in temporary wet pools or dry casks near power plants, awaiting permanent deep geological disposal. [1, 2] he International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tracks the global spent nuclear fuel inventory across power reactors worldwide. When including all classifications (Low-Level and Intermediate-Level Waste), the global inventory totals tens of millions of cubic meters, although the highest-level, most radioactive materials make up a very small percentage of that total volume. [1, 2, 3] Here is a video about how waste disposal works. This is not hysterical scare mongering, but I believe an accurate description of the process. The thing that strikes me is it is quite complex and thus far not much has been actually permanently disposed of.

Australia is one of the global leaders in grid-forming technology, with over ten operational major utility-scale installations active across the country. [1] The most prominent real-world examples of Australian grid-forming batteries are organized below by their operational role. Large-Scale Pioneers & Capacity Leaders Western Downs Battery (Queensland): Operated by Neoen, this facility stands as the largest operating grid-forming battery in the Southern Hemisphere. Originally a standard asset, it transitioned to grid-forming capabilities in early 2025 and expanded to a massive 540 MW / 1,080 MWh capacity. It serves as a blueprint for retrofitting advanced firmware onto existing infrastructure. [1] Hornsdale Power Reserve (South Australia): Famous for being the original "Tesla Big Battery," its subsequent expansion was specifically designed to trial and deploy utility-scale grid-forming capabilities, providing critical system stability to South Australia's highly renewable grid. [1, 2] Victorian Big Battery (Victoria): Another massive Neoen project that incorporates grid-forming capabilities to secure the main transmission line linking Victoria and New South Wales. [1] Grid Stability & Remote Support Wallgrove Grid Battery (New South Wales) Built by Transgrid, this project specifically targets "synthetic inertia". It acts as a direct virtual replacement for the mechanical spinning mass of coal plants, stabilizing the network when sudden voltage drops occur. [1] 3.9 (13) Solar photovoltaic power plant OpenBroken Hill NSW An AGL-developed facility built specifically to support a weak, remote pocket of the power grid. It holds "black-start" capabilities, meaning it can restart the local grid entirely on its own if a blackout occurs. [1, 2] Darlington Point Power station Darlington Point NSW These sites use grid-forming technology to reinforce system strength in regions undergoing rapid coal-plant retirements, taking over the system support roles historically performed by fossil fuels. [1, 2, 3] Residential and Commercial Systems Sigenergy SigenStor: A popular multi-module system available to Australian homeowners and businesses. It functions as a fully integrated grid-forming unit that offers instantaneous backup and power-shifting automation right out of the box. [1, 2] Tesla Powerwall 3: Natively integrates grid-forming inverter technology. This allows standard Australian households on weak regional lines (like the Queensland Sunshine Coast) to maintain an isolated microgrid during severe storm blackouts. [1]

Just saw this on linkedin

Decommissioning and waste disposal has been solved. It is a political and public perception problem. Most of the waste is long lived waste. Easily managed by deep geological storage or for fuel in a fast reactor. Long lived because it is not very radioactive. The deep storage completed in Finland is costing a part of a c/kWh. Having looked for an update, the 500MW test reactor in India went critical in April this year. Most of the shorter lived waste is dangerous for between 300 and 500 years depending on who you asks. Can also be stored under ground. Shorter life because it is more radioactive. If something happens on the earth that this becomes an issue, I reckon there will be other things to worry about. The big ones as far as decommissioning goes in the west are Sellafield and Hanford. These were built to supply bombmaking material during and after the war. Decommissioning would not even have been thought of. I would think new builds would be built with this in mind. and there is so little of this waste. Synchronous generation does this as a part of it design so it is essentially free. Traditional hydro does this as it is synchronous generation. Not sure about pumped hydro though. It may have inverters to allow reversing pumps etc. Not sure grid forming battery have really been proved yet. We had an opportunity in Broken Hill last year but the inverters didn't have that part commissioned I believe.

Decommissioning and waste disposal is still a Problem, Siso. Nev

I have no problem with this approach. Synchronous generation is not the only way to provide the necessary functions. We have synchronous condensers, grid- forming batteries as well as gas turbines and hydro. All of these methods have pros and cons, but the thing is, these technologies are developing at a fast rate. As well as this, batteries are getting cheaper and made of more common materials such as sodium. I am a tecno-optimist. This means I am very interested in new technologies such as batteries, synchronous condensers, small nuclear reactors, thorium reactors etc. Thorium reactors are definitely promising, but again not a solution for today, but quite likely in the future. When might thorium produce grid electricity? A realistic timeline: 2020s Research reactors. Experimental demonstrations. No commercial thorium electricity. 2030s Possible: demonstration plants, small pilot reactors. Unlikely: large commercial fleets. 2040s+ Possible: first commercial deployments if technology, economics and regulation work out. But this is uncertain.

You are right, India is building a lot of renewables along with their nuclear. Look at Germany as well. Lots of renewables but still have the interconnectors with the countries that have synchronous generation. The Baltic states are the same. India have also loaded fuel into a 500MW fast reactor which will lead to being able to breed fuel from Thorium and U238.(not sure how they are progresing) They are looking at this because they have limited access to Uranium. Australia isn't even looking at having any synchronous generation apart from gas for backing up the intermittents. It would be good to replace the black and brown line with Nuclear and let wind, solar and gas play with the rest of it. It wouldn't be easy, but not much is. Snap shot of Europe today as well.

Have enough synchronous generators on the grid and quick response isn't an issue, they all take part of the load. This what has happened previously. Realistically you would have some batterys still for that. You would still have solar and wind as well, but you would prioritise the synchronous generators. Being available when the demand is there is worth it. Nuclear does not need much more water then coal and can easily be handled with sea water. We may be able to research the real cost of NP, pity we can't with renewables. As we saw last month in SA, we still need close on 100% gas/coal for intermittents. This in the state that is "leading" the way. Confusing NP with nuclear bombs is so 70's