Going nuclear

Who isn’t sick of expensive and unreliable electricity in this country? Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he is and has made it one of his government’s priorities to lower our bills. But to do so, he says he may have to take provocative action, including overturning the current ban on nuclear power. It is a cheap and dependable power source, but opponents of the idea always scream two words: Chernobyl and Fukushima. They’re the scenes of the world’s worst nuclear meltdowns, catastrophic disasters which apparently prove that going nuclear is a dangerous, deadly option. But are the critics right? What if the reality is that nuclear power is nowhere near as threatening as we have all been led to believe? To test the theory, Tom Steinfort and Australian energy expert, Dr Ben Heard, venture deep into the infamous radioactive reactor at Fukushima in Japan.

Reporter: Tom Steinfort

Producer: Nick Greenaway

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For a copy of the 2016 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) white paper please click here.