Advocating nuclear power these days is about as passe as a politician admitting they once smoked pot.
looked like he was whistling past the graveyard this week when he released departmental figures claiming Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy plans would cost $387 billion.
“We’re still in a bit of a development phase and maybe in 10 years’ time we’ll be able to buy some, but if you need a couple of hundred of these things, then you might be in a very long queue,” he said.And is nuclear any more pie-in-the sky than the commercially viable production of green hydrogen, which plays a significant role in Labor’s longer-term plans?None of this, however, was the point.
Switkowski, who looked at large scale nuclear power plants rather than the-yet-to-be developed SMRs, concluded nuclear power would be 20 per cent to 50 per cent more expensive than coal-fired electricity, meaning it would not be viable without a price on carbon and the support of government subsidies.
Much has changed since, and Labor’s embrace of Scott Morrison’s AUKUS pact removed another hurdle in that Australia will need to build a dump for high-level nuclear waste. Bowen’s message, as he told the closed meeting in Newcastle, was there had to be a balance between aesthetics and saving the planet.
In doing so, Dutton points out that Labor, in citing the cheap cost of renewables, does not factor in the $1.2 trillion-to-$1.5 trillion cost of the extra transmission infrastructure, which will be passed on to consumers.Dutton will be buoyed by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s retreat overnight on clean energy timelines, amid a growing backlash over the cost of the transition.
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