“Peter Dutton and the opposition need to explain why Australians will be slugged with a $387 billion cost burden for a nuclear energy plan that flies in the face of economics and reason,” Bowen said in reference to the figure produced by the Department of Climate Change,Energy,Environment and Water.
“After nine years of energy policy chaos,rather than finally embracing a clean,cheap,safe and secure renewable future,all the Coalition can promise is a multibillion-dollar nuclear-flavoured energy policy.”
Dutton has said coal-fired power plants could be supplanted by small modular reactors,using the existing transmission connections in place at those sites. He argued in a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs in July that “new nuclear technologies can be plugged into existing grids and work immediately”.
“And if nuclear power is so prohibitively expensive,why are more than 50 countries investing in it,including those with smaller economies than Australia?” he said.
According to the departmental analysis,which used the CSIRO’s and Australian Energy Market Operator’s GenCost electricity estimates,at least 71 300-megawatt small modular reactors would be needed to replace Australia’s retiring coal plants.
The department came to the $387 billion figure through the estimated upfront cost of $18,167 a kilowatt for the reactors in 2030,compared with $1058 for large-scale solar projects and $1989 for onshore wind.