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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc. (Hons.) Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Nicholas Vinen Bao Smith, B.Sc Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Kevin Poulter Dave Thompson SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Offset Alpine, Lidcombe, NSW. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1, 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended & maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip Publisher’s Letter Controversial topics should be able to be discussed Every time I write a Publisher’s Letter or we have a feature article which is remotely related to the environment, I know that some people are not going to like it. Some may vehemently disagree. Some will go onto blogs and Facebook to accuse me of variously being a “climate denier”, of not believing in “anthropological global warming”, of being a rat-bag conservative who doesn’t care about his grand-childrens’ future or something more derogatory. What I don’t understand is why such people seem to take such personal affront and sometimes even go to the length of cancelling their magazine subscription or stating that they will never purchase the magazine again. Why don’t they simply write in to disagree, together with references which show the error of my ways? After all, we do have a long record of publishing critical letters. Or why don’t readers who disagree so vehemently with the Publisher’s Letter simply not just mutter an epithet, turn the page and then continue reading the stuff that they are interested in? So I suppose some people will take affront at our feature article on Nuclear Submarines by Dr David Maddison, in this month’s issue. I decided to commission the article partly because of its technical interest and partly because the recent decision to have a custom-designed diesel version of a nuclear submarine, which itself is not yet operational, will have serious ramifications for the Australian economy, for employment and for our national defence, for decades to come. Simply put, we probably won’t have any submarines for quite a few years after the present Collins class is decommissioned. If such a topic cannot be raised in a technical magazine, where else will it ever appear? We should have nuclear submarines, regardless of where they are purchased and they should be an existing design. It is ludicrous to have diesel submarines for a country like Australia. They simply don’t have enough range for Australia’s huge coastline or for missions which could be expected to range for thousands of kilometres throughout south-east Asia. Let’s face it, most of our potential opponents in a future conflict already have nuclear submarines, so why shouldn’t we? But if we go ahead with this decision, we won’t have any subs, nuclear or otherwise, for some time. Maybe, just maybe, good sense will triumph but I am not hopeful. Nor am I hopeful that this relentless rush to renewable energy might ultimately be tempered by the realisation that killing off coal-fired power stations will jeopardise the reliability of the entire Australian grid. The Hazelwood power station, which is not particularly old (it started operation in 1971) will be closed in four months. And other stations in the Latrobe Valley also seem to have an uncertain future. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) seems to think that the black coal-fired base load power stations in New South Wales will take up the slack but I don’t think they are being sufficiently conservative. In future, much more extensive blackouts may occur and they could have really dire consequences. I should state that I have written past Publisher’s Letters on the undesirability of coal-fired power stations and the hazards of coal mining in general but I never considered that these stations might be closed without other base load stations, either closed-cycle gas turbine or nuclear powered, being built to still provide reliable base-load power. I know that keen environmentalists put their faith in future developments of batteries or other storage systems to solve the intermittency of renewable energy sources. I hope that we have an article on that topic soon. Can you guess how that might turn out? Leo Simpson siliconchip.com.au