Opposition leader Peter Dutton outlined his nuclear policy this morning, including the locations of proposed nuclear reactors.
It’s an ambitious plan that would rely on everything going right in an industry that Australia doesn’t yet have, to get the first nuclear reactor online by 2035.
No costings have been provided yet, and few answers are available regarding the timeline and viability of making this long-term project a reality.
But even without this detail and a plan that ignores the need for climate action this decade, Nationals leader David Littleproud used terms like “hope” and “vision” and leaving a “Legacy for his country” during today’s press conference, as he thanked “Dutto” (Dutton).
“We’re going to give them hope when all seems lost,” Littleproud said on what the Coalition’s leadership will offer the Australian people.
“It’s time for strength and leadership, and time for the Coalition to take over to lead our nation away from this madness of the renewables approach.”
The seven proposed nuclear sites include Lithgow and Hunter in NSW, Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Loy Yang in Victoria, Collie in Western Australia and the option of the Northern power station in South Australia.
Nuclear power will be the Coalition’s signature policy going into the next election. And it comes as the political “climate wars” have been ignited once again, after Dutton said last week that he would not support the nationally legislated 2030 emission reduction target.
Australia doesn’t have time for more climate war, nor for putting off the energy transition another generation.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees will require significant and rapid emissions reductions this decade.
According to the Coalition, the first two nuclear reactor sites will be operational between 2035 and 2037. However, the CSIRO-Gencost report says that once a decision to pursue such technology is agreed upon, a 15-year development timeframe should be expected for nuclear in Australia.
But it could be even longer, especially when considering just how many unknowns and hurdles are ahead.
Establishing a nuclear industry in Australia would require the Coalition to win the election, including a majority in the Senate or incredibly favourable terms with a crossbench. It would require repealing a ban on nuclear energy in Australia, getting the cooperation of the states and removing state nuclear bans (with premiers already declaring their opposition to the plan this morning). It would involve getting past the inevitable community backlash at proposed locations, building up the workforce capacity for an industry that doesn’t exist in Australia, and actually securing the appropriate sites for the nuclear reactors. We’re also going to need plans for waste management, disaster insurance and some kind of idea of who is going to run these reactors and how.
It’s going to require a lot of the “hope” Littleproud says that Coalition leadership will restore. And a lot of taxpayer billions.
Even the most conservative costings suggest a mammoth financial cost for a plan that also carries the added risk of putting out emissions reduction efforts off for another generation.
The CSIRO says it would cost at least $8.5 billion to build a large-scale nuclear power plant in Australia, and estimates nuclear power is at least 50 per cent more expensive than wind and solar power backed by batteries. The CSIRO also says that nuclear power could not be an option for Australia if we hope to meet deadlines on ending coal-fired power.
“We’ll deal with the cost in the next stage of our policy announcement,” Dutton said today.