I'm sure the retired power station worker is proud of his achievements and so he should be. Cheap coal fired power helped build the Australian economy. We know now that burning coal is damaging our climate but thirty years ago there was not the consensus among climate scientists we have now.
Coal fired power stations continue to be built in places like China for exactly the same reason we built them. They provide a pathway to short term economic gain. To their very great credit, China is also embracing nuclear power for baseload power and my expectation is that China will phase out coal fired power ASAP.
Phasing out coal power is what we should be doing right now but our politicians of all colours are too timid to embrace nuclear power. The fact is that nuclear disasters have been a learning experience for the industry and a Fukushima type disaster would not occur with modern designs. The major disasters at Fukushima could have been easily averted had we had the knowledge. That disaster has given us that knowledge.
