But as almost everyone knows, change is coming.

This change is reflected in the Hunter with plans for several renewable energy projects.

With AGL intent on closing the coal-fired Liddell power station in 2022-23, progress being made in the Hunter's renewable energy sector is welcome.

However, scientists have repeatedly said that the transition away from fossil fuels isn't happening fast enough to save the world from catastrophic climate change.

One of the world's foremost thinkers - Microsoft founder Bill Gates - has echoed these sentiments.

The recent documentary, Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, detailed the billionaire and philanthropist's plans for "safe" nuclear power.

"Nuclear is ideal for dealing with climate change, because it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that's available 24 hours a day," Gates has said.

In addressing fears of a nuclear disaster like those that occurred at Chernobyl and Fukushima, Gates said: "The problems with today's reactors, such as the risk of accidents, can be solved through innovation."

Gates's advanced nuclear plant proposal - a "travelling wave reactor" funded through his company TerraPower - would use waste uranium instead of enriched uranium to generate "clean energy".

He planned to build a prototype in China, but US President Donald Trump's trade war with the Asian giant thwarted the deal.

The nuclear debate has been reignited in Australia in recent months. Only last week, a parliamentary inquiry held hearings on the matter in Canberra.

The Australia Institute told the inquiry that the main problem with nuclear power is its high cost. It asserts that renewables, demand management and storage can meet Australian energy needs safely.

But the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation said nuclear power was a mature technology, which had a track record of safe and reliable operation in many countries around the world.

"Of the major economies in the region, Australia alone has excluded nuclear power from energy policy considerations," it said.

The Australian Academy of Science said nuclear energy offers a low carbon option that could enable Australia to "meet its emission reduction responsibilities".

In its submission to the inquiry, the People for Nuclear Disarmament said: "Nuclear technology - both nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor technology - tries to do the impossible, to assure perfection where perfection is notoriously unavailable".

The people of the Hunter will be keeping a close eye on this matter, not least because of the region's interest in energy. But it's also the potential for those in power to one day imagine that the Hunter may be a good place to build a nuclear power plant or two.

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