The Coalition will build seven nuclear power plants if it wins the next election.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has unveiled his party’s new energy policy, which includes plans to build nuclear reactors at existing coal plants in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, SA, and WA.
Nuclear power has been banned in Australia since 1998. The Coalition wants to reverse that ban.
The Labor Government has criticised the Opposition’s plan as a “combination of economic and ideological stupidity”.
Nuclear power
Nuclear energy is produced through the process of fission, where atoms (tiny bits of matter) are heated and split into many parts.
The process is normally fuelled by uranium, which starts a chain reaction. Heat is created before a cooling agent like water is used, producing steam.
The steam then spins machines called turbines, which generate electricity.
Is it renewable?
Australia has one of the world’s biggest uranium reserves.
However, uranium is still a finite resource, meaning there is a limited supply of it around the world. That’s why nuclear power is not considered renewable.
Nuclear power doesn’t produce greenhouse gases, but it does produce radioactive waste.
Australia’s ban
Multiple disasters during the 20th century, including the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs in World War Two, and the Chernobyl meltdown in Russia, sparked concerns about nuclear power and radioactive waste.
In the late 1990s, the Federal Government legislated an Australia-wide ban on building nuclear facilities. Some states have passed their own bans on uranium mining and nuclear reactors.
The only operational nuclear site is south of Sydney, and is used for research, not to generate energy.
Coalition policy
Since its 2022 election loss, the Coalition has been promoting nuclear power as a viable way to boost energy supplies.
Shadow Energy and Climate Change Minister Ted O’Brien has said “next-generation” nuclear technology is needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced plans to build seven nuclear reactors in Australia at existing coal plants. Dutton said the sites are already equipped with cooling water and transmission lines needed for nuclear reactors.
Dutton said two of the proposed sites would start producing electricity by 2035, while the remaining five would be functional by 2037. He didn’t detail how much the Opposition’s nuclear plan would cost.
The Opposition Leader pointed to overseas examples such as the Canadian province (state) of Ontario, where he said nuclear power has successfully led to cheaper electricity prices.
With the Albanese Government strongly against his proposal, Dutton said he was “very happy” for the next election to act as a “referendum” on nuclear.
Nuclear sites
Pushback
Last month, national science agency the CSIRO found that “nuclear is currently the most expensive” type of electricity to generate.
It estimated nuclear power would cost roughly twice as much as renewable energy and take at least 15 years to come online.
Independent analysis by the Blueprint Institute found nuclear production is at least a decade away. However, modelling released by the Coalition earlier this year suggested Australia could have functional nuclear power by the mid-2030s.
Reaction
Before Dutton’s announcement, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described the Coalition’s stance as “the dumbest policy ever put forward by a major party”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said his state won’t lift its ban on nuclear reactors, calling them “very expensive”. Minns said it was “very unclear” if the Coalition’s plan is feasible.
Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who leads the Liberal-National Party, said nuclear energy is “not part of our plan”. His party is tipped to win the state election in October.
