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I’m fascinated by Opposition Leader Peter’s Dutton’s claims that the nuclear waste produced by one small reactor each year would be “one Coke can” a year (“ Dutton’s claim nuclear waste would be size of Coke can ‘hard to swallow’ ,” 24/6). Rolls-Royce’s small modular reactor specification is that an SMR produces 285 cubic metres of waste over its lifetime. By my calculations – there are 693,333 cans of Coke in the 260 cubic metres volume, and 700,800 hours in 80 years – there is about one can of Coke in nuclear waste produced each hour, not each year, across a plant’s 80 year working life.
So the can of Coke measure is correct, except Dutton mixed up his hours and years. A simple mistake really. Richard Davies, Point Lonsdale Eliminating all risk Sean Kelly’s analysis of the black holes in Peter Dutton’s so-called nuclear policy is astute and timely (“ Nuclear void a new low for debate ”, 24/6).
However, Kelly overlooks a gaping hole in the “policy”: the issue of risk. In 1957, Britain’s Windscale nuclear energy plant leaked radioactive matter into the environment with terrible consequences for nearby villagers and farmers. In 1979, near Harrisburg Pennsylvania, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor a.