PETER Dutton will announce his nuclear power plan before the 2025 election.
That's good.
People need to know where these large-scale reactors and the waste would go, how we source the enriched fuel, how much they cost etc.
But more importantly, whether we have time.
Former chief scientist Alan Finkel said we might be able to do it by the 2040s but by then nuclear power in Australia "won't be needed" because we'd be operating with renewables, batteries and gas back-up; all existing and far cheaper technologies.
Mr Dutton and his climate change and energy spokesman Ted O'Brien have said large-scale reactors will replace coal-fired power stations, but have they asked the people who live there who have had to put up with the health risks and pollution of coal for decades?
The so-called small modular reactors, not yet up and running anywhere, are likely to be placed in regional areas. They would need extensive community consultation, and transmission lines.
Furthermore, there's the nuclear waste problem.
Despite having nuclear power for over 60 years, the US has been unable to agree on the location of a site for the storage of high-level nuclear waste from its reactors.
Its 85,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel was initially stored in steel-lined concrete pools surrounded by water and is now in ageing storage casks.
What is the Coalition's radioactive waste plan, what will it cost and where will the waste be stored?
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Cash is a cost to doing business
THERE is a lot of debate around some small businesses refusing to accept cash payments. Having been a small business owner in the past, I am very aware of the burden placed on the business owner.
Firstly you have to manage your cash drawer to keep the right amount of the various notes and coins available all the time.
Then there is the security issue, particularly at night.
What do you do with your cash float; take it home, install a safe with all its headaches, or take it to the bank?
Banks now charge a significant fee to deposit cash, and also can sometimes take days to process a cash deposit.
There are plenty of problems to face for a rapidly-diminishing portion of your customers who wish to use cash.
If I were operating my small business now, I would be looking very seriously at refusing cash.
The alternative would be including a fee for customers who pay by cash. Imagine the complaints if I did that.
Bruce Graham, Warners Bay
Cost of blow-outs adds up fast
REGARDING Sage Swinton's story ("Council's 'great work never trumpeted'", Herald 1/3), I'd argue the only misinformation is that of spin coming out of the council.
The questions asked by Cr John Church about massive blowouts on projects are fair and just, and to use the misleading analogy that they are within the capital works budget is in my opinion spin and misleading itself.
As someone who worked in all facets of civil engineering, planning, design, estimating, drafting and surveying, if I was to have had blowouts on projects to the extent that Newcastle council consistently have, I'd have expected to be out of a job. I was in the game for 38 years.
This is ratepayers' money being wasted, I believe, with zero accountability.
Tony Mansfield, Lambton
Admit drawbacks on gas pipeline
REGARDING Matthew Kelly's story ("Pipeline will destroy farms: landowners", Herald 5/3): Santos are oversimplifying the impacts that their Hunter Gas pipeline will cause to landholders, and I believe it needs to be noted as simply a PR exercise to try to gain broader community support.
This proposed pipeline is not of some ordinary domestic gas supply construction.
It demands a cleared 30-metre-wide easement over many different terrains to accommodate a huge half-metre diameter pipe to transport 1300 psi of a highly-flammable gas.
It also requires additional access trails for supporting infrastructure, while imposing many currently undefined restrictions on the landholder. It's simply not worth the sacrifice or the risks brought to bear by the landholders who are expected to host it; and the broader community needs to understand this.
Virginia Congdon, Westbrook
Sam Kerr case was a long time coming to light
IT'S a very strange turn of events, charging the best female footballer in the world a year after the fact over an alleged offence where I would argue the PC involved must be a little too fragile for the job ('Sam's secret: Matildas, FA not told of charges', Newcastle Herald 6/3).
Or rather, I should say it smacks of a woke political assassination, which reflects fully on the crazy modern world where the old sticks and stones line no longer applies. Fair dinkum, we are losing it as a society.
Stephen Willmott, Maitland
Daylight savings costs too much
IT'S been described as "a cost of living crisis". Why then do residents of NSW have to tolerate the extended daylight period?
It was meant to be only temporary. At the beginning and end of the extended daylight saving period, residents of NSW cannot avoid having to switch lights on in the morning.
Ditch the extended daylight saving period. Let's live by normal sunlight hours.
Robyn King, Newcastle East
I'll take my concerns to ballot box
WELL written, Christine Everingham ("Clarity can hold misinformation", Letters 5/3). I am sure many people would agree with your views on our City of Newcastle council's performance.
The last paragraph sums it all up, stating that councillors are elected to represent their constituents. Ensuring transparency and accountability is their job. Sadly, I think there is a lack of both in my opinion.
As the song says, I Can't Wait for September to vote with my feet.
Col Parkins, Wallsend
Set an example and run for office
CHRISTINE Everingham ("Clarity can halt misinformation", Letters, 5/3), has anyone at City of Newcastle ever been satisfactory to you? If you're so against the council, why don't you run for a spot and be the leader you seemingly want everyone to be?
Mark Olsen, Eleebana
No mention for game in heaven
SORRY, but the Waratahs beating the Crusaders in the rugby union hardly gets a mention even in this paper, which is usually good at being fair in coverage, and none in the other paper.
It's bigger news than the minnow game telling how good it is to play in a country that doesn't even know what their game is. Maybe the World Club Challenge can include the USA instead of just two states of Australia and a couple of counties in the north of England.
