Going nuclear: Dutton to lay out detail on power plan
Further details on how Australia could use nuclear energy are set to be revealed in a major speech by the opposition leader on the power proposal.
Peter Dutton will give an address on Monday to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia laying out how the coalition’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors across five states would work.
However, it’s not expected the cost of building the reactors will be unveiled in the speech.
The coalition outlined in June plans to build reactors in the Hunter Valley and Lithgow in NSW, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Callide and Tarong in Queensland, Port Augusta in South Australia and Collie in Western Australia, should it win the next election.
Should the proposal go ahead, it would be 10 to 12 years before the first reactor is built, before the remainder are constructed from the 2040s.
Mr Dutton has previously said nuclear would become part of Australia’s overall energy mix, along with renewables.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the coalition would reveal the costs of the nuclear policy before the election.
“(The speech) will outline our energy policy in totality, around what our mix will be, and that’s about not putting all our energy into one basket,” he told Sky News.
“We’ve taken a very mature approach to this, we’ve said that there’ll be seven locations across the country that will transition those coal-fired power stations to nuclear power plants.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the coalition proposal would not solve energy issues in Australia.
“Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is economic insanity. It costs more, it will push power prices up, it will take longer,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
“He needs to come clean … in this speech: what will it cost, what will it mean for power bills, how will he pay for it, and what will Australia do for the decades it will take to build these reactors.”
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