However, it is important that this return to reality does not lead to their neglect, such alternatives should continue to be investigated, and applied where they are appropriate. In particular a great deal can be achieved by matching the location, scale and thermodynamic character of energy sources to particular energy needs. But when the question of utilising nuclear energy arises there are those who wish somehow to put the genie back in the bottle and to return to some pre-nuclear innocence. Such notions seem to achieve undue prominence in Australia because there is no actual utilisation of nuclear power. Australia is probably the only developed country where, when you switch on the light, you are not getting some nuclear electricity to help lighten your way.
Next door is Italy, a major industrial country without any operating nuclear power plants.
It is the world's largest net importer of electricity, and most of that comes ultimately from France. I anticipate that my children's, or perhaps my grandchildren's generation will come to look upon weapons as simply an initial aberration of the nuclear age, rather than a major characteristic of it. Arguably the same is true of the bronze and iron ages. Certainly, as Figure 1 graphically shows, we cannot indefinitely use fossil fuels as readily as we do today. The book Considerable effort has been made to include as much up to date and pertinent information as possible on generating electricity from nuclear energy.