The GenCost report factored in$40 billion worth of transmission lines as well as batteries by 2030 and still found an electricity network that was 80 per cent powered by renewables would provide cheaper power than gas,coal or nuclear power.

Asked when the Coalition would finally release its policy,Dutton said “we’ll provide that information in due course”,and added that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said there were 12 months until the next election.

Dutton refused to say where the sites would be:“I haven’t ruled out or in any sites. I’ve said that we’re looking at coal-fired power stations that are coming to an end of life.”

Victorian Nationals MP Darren Chester,whose seat takes in much of the Latrobe Valley,last month spoke out to caution that his constituents would need a significant economic package if they were to host a nuclear power station.

Several MPs,who asked not to be named,expressed concern that the nuclear policy had been delayed after Dutton had flagged,back in March,that it would be released before the May federal budget.

One MP said “this is a complex policy and we will have to educate 26 million people. There will be a scare campaign from Labor and they will frame the next election as a referendum on nuclear.”

In March,12 Coalition MPs publicly backed lifting the moratorium on nuclear power in Australia butwould not commit to hosting a nuclear power plant in their own electorate.

Littleproud told Sky News on Wednesday that “we’re going to announce them,we’ve been very clear,we’ve been very honest about this,that we will get to juncture in the coming weeks”.

But Taylor told the National Press Club the opposition would release its energy policy “in the coming months”,and ruled out offering subsidies to ensure the plants are commercially viable.

“I don’t want to commit to subsidies … to make sure that it is commercially viable,and we think it can be,” Taylor said.

Hume said the opposition would not be drawn on when the locations of nuclear sites would be announced,or the timing.

“We have been pretty clear that we will announce our nuclear policy when ready,on our own timetable,” she said.

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien rejected the CSIRO’s finding that nuclear reactors would generate more expensive electricity than renewables.

“I do not accept the price of electricity that I see in this report. I am yet to look at the assumptions underpinning it,but they have not disclosed the full financing cost,” O’Brien said.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Wednesday taunted Dutton over the delay to his energy policy.

The Albanese government is opposed to nuclear energy and has pledged to boost the share of renewables to 82 per cent of the energy mix by 2030.

“He promised it before the budget. The budget’s been and gone now,” Bowen said.

“This is time,now,for Mr Dutton to come forward on where will the nuclear sites be,where in South Australia will they be,where else in the country will they be,what the costs and what is the reliability risk,and we will await Mr Dutton’s policy with keen interest.”

Energy experts including the Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood and former chief scientist Alan Finkel say that while a rapid rollout of renewables to 90 per cent of the grid is needed over the next two decades to cut carbon emissions and limit global warming,nuclear power plants could back up supply in future decades.

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