Tony Abbott regrets not pushing for nuclear submarines
4 replies, posted
[quote]Prime ministers cut down in their first term are thoroughly entitled to bear emotional and psychological scars — anger, remorse, revenge, regret and, of course, a sense of betrayal are understandable wounds to heal.
Odd, then, that of all the missteps Tony Abbott has had time to reflect on since his ousting in 2015, the one he now nominates as "probably the biggest regret I have from my time as PM" is one for which he has attracted almost no public criticism.
Mr Abbott is now repenting for his self-recognised failure of "not more robustly challenging the nuclear 'no-go' mindset".
In an 18-minute mea culpa speech on submarines, the former prime minister laid out what he describes as his "fears" for the $50-billion French submarine program locked in at the end of the Competitive Evaluation Process his Government had ordered.
"We've based our proposed sub on an existing design, but one that will need to be so extensively reworked that it's effective a brand new submarine," he fretted.
He likened the conversion of the French nuclear Barracuda submarine to a conventional diesel-electric boat as "the naval version of putting a four-cylinder engine into an eight-cylinder car".[/quote]
[url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-29/tony-abbott-regrets-not-challenging-australian-nuclear-mindset/8664482[/url]
I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with Abbott. The arguments presented against nuclear submarines were hollow. Claims that we don't have the nuclear facilities for nuclear submarines is ridiculous given the time-scale involved(and I would ask, besides a long term disposal site, what facilities are actually needed?). Claims we lack the trained personal is also ridiculous give the time scale and how fast nuclear reactor operators can be trained.
I disagree with the idea we should get US nuclear subs though as US subs run on 90% HEU. You probably could load them up with 20% LEU, but you would be refuelling them very regularly and they're not designed for regular refuelling. French nuclear subs however are designed to run on 20% LEU.
seems rather dumb to go to a nuclear sub designer and ask for a diesel redesign in the first place since the germans build excellent diesel subs already
why we use HEU is probably because we design reactors now to be life of the ship so you don't have to refuel them ever which seems like a great tradeoff especially since we have the nuclear facilities to make HEU
[editline]29th June 2017[/editline]
from a little searching, the japanese, germans, dutch and swedes all build subs that could probably be made to fit the austrailian needs, the japanese especially have 3000-4000 ton subs with air independant systems on them exactly like what they ordered from the french.
ya the japanese probably do not have that much extra construction capacity but neither does the US since we have like 4 slips that can be used for construction of nuclear subs and we're using them for the virginia and new boomer sub as well as maintaining our fleet
[QUOTE=Sableye;52415691]seems rather dumb to go to a nuclear sub designer and ask for a diesel redesign in the first place since the germans build excellent diesel subs already
why we use HEU is probably because we design reactors now to be life of the ship so you don't have to refuel them ever which seems like a great tradeoff especially since we have the nuclear facilities to make HEU
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HEU allows smaller reactor cores which probably allow faster power ramp-up times but only nuclear weapon states have any chance of having a large supply of the stuff.
[QUOTE=Sableye;52415691]ya the japanese probably do not have that much extra construction capacity but neither does the US since we have like 4 slips that can be used for construction of nuclear subs and we're using them for the virginia and new boomer sub as well as maintaining our fleet[/QUOTE]
ozzies didn't want the Soryus since they're fairly short range, whilst the australians wanted a longer ranged design
We should have just gotten more Collins 'Reliable & Quiet' Class subs.. :vs:
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