Australian Opposition Leader Reveals 210-Bln-USD Price Tag For Nuclear Plan

CANBERRA, Dec 13 (NNN-AAP) – The leader of Australia’s federal opposition party, Peter Dutton, revealed his nuclear energy plan would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Dutton, the leader of the Coalition, today released the long-awaited costing of his plan to build seven nuclear reactors, on the sites of retiring coal plants, if he is elected Prime Minister (PM), at the 2025 general election.

According to the independent costing, the plan would cost 331 billion Australian dollars (210.7 billion U.S. dollars).

Under Dutton’s proposal, the first two publicly-owned reactors would begin operation by the mid-2030s, with coal-fired power plants to fill the generation gap in the meantime.

In 2050 – by which the remaining five reactors would be operational – Dutton said, nuclear power would account for 38 percent of Australia’s electricity generation, with renewables covering 54 percent and the remaining eight percent coming from a combination of storage and gas.

The governing Labour Party has committed to pursuing a renewables-only future, which the Coalition has claimed would cost over 600 billion AUD (381.9 billion USD).

“This is a plan which will underpin the economic success of our country for the next century,” Dutton told reporters, today.

“This will make electricity reliable. It will make it more consistent. It will make it cheaper for Australians and it will help us decarbonise as a trading economy – as we must.”

Australia has had a ban in place on nuclear power, since 1998, but Dutton said, he would repeal the ban and start work on building the reactors within two years of taking office as PM.

A report published by the national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), on Monday found that, nuclear reactors would cost twice as much, over a 60-year timeframe as wind and solar generation.– NNN-AAP

The annual report concluded that the development time for a nuclear reactor in Australia would be at least 15 years.

The Australian Energy Council — the industry group for electricity retailers and generators — on Thursday told an ongoing government inquiry that it is highly unlikely that nuclear power would be a viable replacement for coal-fired power over the next 10-15 years.

-NNN-AAP