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(Bloomberg) — Australia’s main opposition group laid out a A$331 billion ($211 billion) plan to create a taxpayer-funded nuclear power industry in just over a decade, despite the nation’s top scientists saying renewable energy such as wind and solar energy is more cost effective.
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The center-right Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton announced the cost of his nuclear policy at a press conference in Brisbane on Friday, making it a major plank of the election platform of his coalition with the National Party before an election due by May.
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Nuclear power will “underpin the economic success of our country for the next century,” Dutton said. “This will make electricity reliable. It will make it more consistent. It will make it cheaper for Australians, and it will help us decarbonize.”
Australia has a long history of political battles over how to tackle climate change in one of the world’s biggest per-capita polluters, and the issue was seen as a major factor in the ousting of Dutton’s predecessor as prime minister in 2022. The coalition has long been critical of the Labor government’s rollout of renewable energy as the nation looks to shutter the aging coal-fired power stations that have been the backbone of its power system, calling for round-the-clock generation such as nuclear to ensure the grid stays stable.
Dutton’s proposal calls for seven nuclear plants by 2050, with the first operational by 2036. However, the power source is currently banned in Australia and so any atomic industry would need to be built from scratch.
Both parties have committed to reaching net zero by 2050. The Coalition hasn’t set a 2030 target for its emission cuts, while Labor has pledged to reduce emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by the end of this decade.
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In a report earlier this month, Australia’s premier science body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, found that nuclear energy was one of the most expensive possible options for the country, and more pricey than renewable energy projects.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. ahead of Dutton’s announcement that the opposition was making “heroic assumptions.”
“What the Coalition is asking the Australian people to believe is this — that they can introduce the most expensive form of energy, and it’ll end up being cheaper,” Bowen said.
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