Win or lose, Peter Dutton’s announcement that the Coalition will build seven nuclear power stations, all government-owned, across Australia has really put the cat amongst the pigeons.
As anyone who reads this column should know, I support nuclear power in Australia and always have. It certainly has to be in the mix, and Peter Dutton has done just that.
All sides of politics will go through this announcement with a fine-tooth comb, but even just a few facts indicate it is most likely overall to be much cheaper than renewables, and a lot more environmentally and business friendly.
Chirs Bowen’s own figure, released a few months ago, showed that if we put 71 small modular nuclear reactors into disused power stations, it would cost in the vicinity of $380 million. As this minister is wont to do, he scored an own goal, because the total cost of his wind turbines and solar panels, including the 28,000 kilometres of new power lines, was around $1.5 trillion. Most countries overseas are now cautiously winding back their renewables. We are the only advanced country in the world that does not do nuclear.
The wind turbines are especially scary. On land, they will go through thousands of hectares of koala habitat and destroy prime agricultural land. Off the coast, they will be 250 metres high, and will kill bird life and, it seems, migrating whales. I think, properly sold, Dutton is onto a winner, and the next election could end up with something like 60 per cent to the Coalition and One Nation, and 40 per cent to the ALP, Greens, Teals, etc. It seems tailor-made for a ‘battlers vs the inner city elites’ campaign.
The proposed power stations seem to be big ones, but the United Arab Emirates in 2009 paid $20 billion to get the South Koreans to build them four big stations. Three are currently operating, and the last one is coming on board in a few months. The first one took 10 years to build and to be connected to the grid, so I think that’s where Dutton gets his timeline from. So long as the fat man in North Korea does not invade the south, we can use South Korean expertise to build ours.
I have been very concerned about Albanese’s timidity. Dutton is showing leadership and a willingness to debate the hard questions if nothing else. I must say I wasn’t terribly impressed with Morrison, who dogged it when he agreed to net zero by 2050. This, or a similar scheme should have been announced then.
Time will tell if this all gets up, but for all our sakes, I hope it does, as we are currently sleepwalking into a disaster where we will not be able to guarantee base load power if we just use renewables. It is also imperative in the interim to expand our use of gas, a low-admission transition fuel, and we need to open up more gas fields to do so.
If Labor were smart, they would come out in a month or so and say that they have had a look at it, it has merit, and they will work with the Coalition to make it, or something similar, happen.
