This article criticizes Peter Dutton's nuclear energy plan, arguing that it relies on a flawed assumption that coal-fired power plants will continue operating until 2050. The author points out the aging infrastructure of coal plants and the financial burden of keeping them operational.
The owners of our coal-fired power plants have pointed to the biggest single flaw in Peter Dutton ’s nuclear plan: those plants will all be gone before the first reactor can make an appearance and long before the last is up and running. Even if the owners wanted to keep them operating, it’s doubtful they could – not without spending inordinate amounts of money. That money, inevitably, would be courtesy of the taxpayer. All so we can enjoy energy at double the cost of renewables.
Why can’t the opposition see what all the rest of us can? Or is it just a ploy to delay action on climate change for 20 more years?In March this year, it was reported that AGL, Australia’s largest power supplier, had ruled out taking part in Dutton’s nuclear push. It is instead pressing ahead with long-term plans to transform its legacy coal sites into low-carbon industrial energy hubs, including renewable energy, grid-scale batteries and manufacturing operations for green technologies. The Hunter Energy Hub is to occupy the old coal station Liddell and AGL’s Bayswater coal-fired generator, which is due to retire no later than 2033. Coal stations are ageing and in constant need of repair. Dutton will not include the consequent necessary budget support for coal in his costings, but taxpayers should.Dutton’s plans depend upon his assumption that the existing coal-fired power plants will keep going until 2050 when nuclear plants replace them. In thearticle, the Australian Energy Council said Dutton’s assumption was “brave”. “Brave” was a word reserved for impending disaster, that uber bureaucrat Sir Humphrey Appleby would use to his prime minister Jim Hacker when the latter was contemplating doing something ridiculous. Life imitates art.We don’t need to replace the soon-to-be redundant 19th century baseload power from ageing coal plants with poisonously expensive and slow-to-build nuclear plants that won’t be ready in tim
Nuclear Energy Coal Power Climate Change Peter Dutton Australian Politics
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