Dr David Krofcheck: University Of Auckland Senior Lecturer in nuclear physics on the potential use of nuclear energy in New Zealand

Is it time to go back on our nuclear-free stance? 

Power bills will be rising soon, the Commerce Commission allowing Transpower and local lines companies to raise their prices to avoid worse hikes further down the road. 

The average household bill is set to increase by $10 a month in April, and by $5 a month for the following four years. 

New Zealand has had a firm nuclear-free stance since 1987, but could introducing nuclear power be the solution to our power struggles? 

Dr David Krofcheck, Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Physics at Auckland University, told Matt Heath and Tyler Adams that nuclear power generation is a lot safer than people assume.  

He says the disasters that occurred in places like Fukushima and Chernobyl are abnormal events, and not the standard path for the operation of nuclear power plants.  

Renewables currently provide 82% of New Zealand’s electricity needs, and 40% of our total primary energy, but despite their clean nature, there is still an issue with intermittency. 

Krofcheck says that he’d love for New Zealand to be open to nuclear to provide baseline power, since it would mitigate the intermittency problem. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Leading global experts at Australia could build its first nuclear
actor within twelve years. Dutton loves it, but the current
government Australia hates it. But what about here? Is it
time to open our minds to nuclear power generation? It's
getting cheaper, there's innovations all over the shop. If we
don't open our minds now, will we be left behind?
And to that end, we've managed to track down we

(00:38):
thought it'd be important to because I'm not a physicist.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
No surprisingly neither am I.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I do spend a lot of time watching physics videos
on YouTube and my feed is absolutely packed with them
because I'm interested in it. But I'm not smart enough
to fully understand things. So we've tracked down an expert
from Walkland University.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
We certainly have and he's on the line now. His
name is doctor David kraft Cheek. He's a senior lecturer
in physics at the University of Auckland. David, A very
good afternoon to you, thanks for having the doctor.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Croft check holf sife is nuclear power generation?

Speaker 4 (01:11):
It's safer than you hear in the news, because you
hear terrible disasters in Fukushima and Chernobyl and in my
home state of Pennsylvania, even in the nineteen seventies three
Mile Island. But these are really abnormal events that are
not the normal path for the operation of nuclear power plants.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
When it comes to the waste product of nuclear power generation,
I understand that around ninety six percine of it can
be reused, but how syfe is the disposal of the
final full pacine.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Most of the waste now is stored on site in
these nuclear power plants, and that's kind of a shame
because I know that in the US there was underground
burial facilities constructed in Yuca Mountain, which is a big
mountain range stable geology in Nevada, and that seems to work.

(02:10):
And there are test sites also built in Los Alamos,
New Mexico, and then underground tunnels into the mountain, and
in Finland, as it's already dug another underground tunnel which
you'll start taking its first waste from their nuclear power
plants next year in twenty twenty five. So there are

(02:30):
solutions for this. It is really the initial fear of
insurance and these kinds of costs, non scientific costs that
have made storage long term storage of nuclear fission waste

(02:50):
almost unachievable.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
What the advancement of technology doctor has the argument considerably
changed in terms of feasibility of nuclear power in New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
The technology change that has me most intrigued as a
small modular reactors. Now, these devices would be good for
baseline power and they're about maybe one hundred times smaller
in power output than your conventional nuclear power plant. And

(03:23):
dozens of small startup companies around the world are racing
to get a small modular reactor size of freight containers
for example, around the world. And there fits and starts
to the first generation of anything, And I think the
first generation of automobiles of the first generation of small

(03:45):
modular reactors. So people are exactly sure which model will
win out in the end. So maybe in the twenty thirties,
I think if that is when most of these companies
are really going to produce the first models. But you
really want to get one that comes off like an
assembly line once the model has been proven to be
cross effective and working. And I think i'd love for

(04:07):
new Zealand to be open minded above that to provide
baseline power because we can do our sore energy and
we can do our wind power, but the intermittency problem
there just doesn't go away.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
So if New Zealand wants to be part of a
future that involves nuclear energy, what should we do now?
Do we need to open up our minds to it
or do we have to change laws to look into it.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's more a way of thinking because we fact right
now we could probably somewhere around ninety percent of our
energy is renewable sources, which is amazing, and I'm really
confident that we could eventually reach you practically one hundred
percent renewable energy in New Zeo. But with the climate
changing and maybe water sources drying up so your hydropower

(05:02):
doesn't become as readily available, and intermittency with wind and sun,
we just need to live through this and that will change.
I suspect that's the practical changes that people will experience
and leave them maybe more open minded for small modular

(05:24):
type reactor.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
So you're signing within fifteen twenty years there might be
a financial and sif why that we could bring nuclear
power into New Zealand that would add that would add
to a grid and be a benefit for New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah, I think I'm not sure I would want to
be the first country the very first model off the floor,
the new sports car. Do you really want to buy
that new sports car when it's the first version? And
we were fortunately able to have such renewable energy that
we can wait and watch and then pick the time
when the small modular reactors are actually feasible, because right

(06:07):
now costs changing and rising, and there's different technologies and
different attempts and we're not quite sure which one will
be the winner yet. So I don't want to pick
a winner right now. I want to see who are
actually going to win before we couldn't move into it.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh well, thank you so much for your time. That
was Dr David Kroftchek's senior lecture in physics at Oakland University.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
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