Big nuclear question Dutton can’t answer

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will keep voters in the dark over the cost of the Coalition’s election promise to build seven nuclear reactors, stating only that the “significant upfront cost” is balanced by an 80-year lifespan.

On Monday, Mr Dutton will share further details in a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Sydney, labelling the plan as a “truly visionary” policy and calling on Labor to stop its “juvenile arguments against nuclear,” as reported in the Australian Financial Review.

The Coalition has pledged to build seven reactors in areas with existing coal-fired power stations in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, with the first sites to come online between 2035 to 2037.

“Yes, our nuclear plan does have a significant upfront cost, but a whole new and vast transmission network and infrastructure won’t be needed. Moreover, the cost of our nuclear plants can be amortised and spread over a reactor’s 80-year lifespan,” Mr Dutton is expected to say.

“Under Labor’s renewables-only plan, every solar panel and wind turbine will need to be replaced three to four times over the same period.”

While wind turbines and solar farms have a maximum lifespan of 25 to 40 years, the world’s oldest operational nuclear power plant, the Swiss Beznau nuclear power plant, is 55 years old.

However Mr Dutton is not expected to confirm when the Coalition would release detailed costings.

“We will release our costings in due course – at a time of our choosing,” will say.

He will say that a nuclear strategy would also create “thousands” of new jobs and claimed more than 75 per cent of coal workers would be able to transfer their skills and experience to working in nuclear plants.

Taking aim at Labor, he called for bipartisan support for the nuclear plan, as it was in the “country’s best interests”, citing the Coalition’s recent support for Labor’s reforms to aged care and the NDIS.

“The test now is whether Labor will join with us in an undertaking which is transformational for our economy,” he will say.

“Nuclear energy is reliable and it will underpin renewables. It will underpin economic success for a generation.”

On Sunday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers labelled the Coalition’s nuclear promise plan as “economic insanity”.

“It costs more, it will push power prices up, it will take longer, it will only at best deliver a sliver of what we need in energy, and it will turn Australia’s back on our unique combination of advantages,” he said.

“He is a big risk to energy and to power prices in this country. The fact that he’s not prepared to release those details I think should ring alarm bells for every Australian. It’s time for him to come clean.”

Recent modelling from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis also revealed nuclear power would increase energy bills by an average of $665 across Australia.