Uranium Fever

Caption: Nuclear Energy is much dirter than we throught.

Australia is the world’s number two exporter of uranium after Canada despite Australia has almost half the world's known uranium supply. One reason for their “limited” uranium export is that the Howard government promised years ago (for electoral purpose) that no more new uranium mines would be allow due to environmental concern. However, the country now is under huge pressure, basically economic force, to open new uranium mines after the landmark nuclear power deal between India and the Untied States, plus the formalisation of uranium export negotiations with China since the end of last year.
Apart from the question that wheather the nuclear technology or uranium will be ended up as dreadful weapons in China or/and India, there is other question about whether the “civil nuclear energy reform” is a correct direction for long term sustainable development in developing countries.
Public opinion is gradually swinging towards accepting nuclear energy to help combat climate change but in reality, nuclear power is much dirtier, more dangerous and expensive than it apparently looks like. Although the advance in technology ensures no Chernobyl-scale disaster could happen again in theory, nuclear waste remains a major problem. Even there may be technical solutions to dealing with the nuclear waste, such toxic waste management is an ongoing, non-stop process with present technology, which means that cost and energy of dealing the waste are required for very long term. Hence, the benefits of nuclear energy to combat climate change are not clear and it seems to me that nuclear power is definitely not the answer for climate change. In addition, it consumed a lot of energy and resources to build a nuclear plant but the life-span of the plant is always too short to pay-back what it consumed. In fact, nuclear energy is a non-renewable energy and uranium is finite resource.
Sadly, the fact is uranium prices have more than tripled in the past five years to record highs, in step with higher oil prices, nuclear energy seems regard as the most common alternative (but not the most welcome) source to fossil fuels. Just wonder whether the illusion and delusion on nuclear will be clarified.