Opposition Leader Peter Dutton‘s plan to build seven nuclear power plants across Australia is already being dragged by some experts, who claim it’s too costly, too far away, and — somewhat poetically — a case of “putting the cart before the horse”.
The Liberal leader unveiled his vision for Australia’s nuclear future on Wednesday, revealing plans to build power plants on seven sites around Australia.
The locations outlined in Dutton’s announcement include Mount Piper and Liddell in NSW, Loy Yang in Victoria, Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Muja in Western Australia, and Port Augusta in South Australia.
Dutton promised that two of these proposed sites will be operational by 2035 to 2037 — a shorter timeframe than indicated by experts — and that all of them will be government-owned with a similar business model to the Snowy Hydro scheme and the National Broadband Network.
Dutton said the sites had been “looked at in great detail”, and will form part of his government’s “energy mix with renewables and significant amounts of gas” if elected next year.
He continued: “We have a vision for our country to deliver cleaner electricity, cheaper electricity and consistent electricity… This is a plan for our country which will underpin a century of economic growth and jobs for these communities.”
While Dutton admitted his plans would come with a “big bill”, he did not go into specifics about costs, saying the Coalition will address the price tag “in due course”.
Dutton said nuclear power will be needed in order to reach net zero emissions by 2050, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the plans as a “fantasy.”
“This is a recipe for higher energy prices, for less energy security, less job creation,” the PM told the ABC on Wednesday. “This is economic madness.”
Albanese pointed to CSIRO research which found that the first nuclear stations could not be built until 2040 — beyond the timeline projected in Dutton’s plans — and that each station would cost up to $16 billion, far more expensive than renewable energy plans.
Researchers have also found that building the power plants will increase emissions due to reliance on fossil fuels in the meantime.
Instead, the Albanese government will address net zero emissions targets with a renewable energy-focussed plan to drive clean energy to 82 per cent of the grid by 2030.
For his part, Dutton said he won’t reveal his own interim emissions plans for 2030 until after the federal election, which will take place by May, 2025.
The PM isn’t the only one to call into question Dutton’s nuclear power plans, with a variety of experts weighing in following Dutton’s announcement.
Dr Nathan Garland from the School of Environment and Sciences at Griffith University said that while the proposal is “relatively uncontroversial” from a “purely scientific, technical or engineering perspective”, it was “putting the cart before the horse in the grandest sense”.
“We currently have no long-term storage policy and method to do so, and this has to be talked about first before any nuclear site is proposed,” he said. “Another large issue is that Australia’s nuclear workforce is minuscule, and this would take considerable time and cost to be built properly as well.”
Meanwhile, Dr Asma Aziz, senior lecturer in power engineering at Edith Cowan University, raised concerns over the “high capital costs, long build times [and] substantial operating expenses” of nuclear power, and made note of “safety concerns”.
Elsewhere, Associate Professor at Swinburne University, Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, said that while Dutton’s approach “could potentially reduce costs”, current advancements in renewable energy have far outpaced those of nuclear power, making sources like wind and solar “more sustainable and efficient alternatives.”
Dutton’s plans further outline what looks to be a central issue ahead of next year’s election, with the Liberal leader saying on Wednesday he’s “very happy for the election to be a referendum on energy.”
So, I guess we’ll just forget about the cozzie livs crisis, which probably isn’t too big of a deal for a private jet-setter like Dutton.
Image source: Martin Ollman/Getty Images and Daria Nipot/ Getty Images.
