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🗞️Treasurer: Nuclear Power Report "Torpedoes" Peter Dutton's Energy "Fantasy

🗞️Treasurer: Nuclear Power Report "Torpedoes" Peter Dutton's Energy "Fantasy

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's energy "fantasy" has been "torpedoed" by a new report that shows nuclear power is more expensive than renewables and would take at least 15 years to develop.

The GenCost 2023–24 report, which provides investors with information on the cost of developing future electricity generation in Australia, was delivered on Wednesday by the CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). The costs of transmission lines for renewable energy sources and large-scale nuclear reactors were included in the GenCost report this year for the first time. According to the report, constructing a large-scale nuclear reactor could cost up to $17 billion, take up to 20 years, and produce power that is twice as expensive as renewable energy sources.

“I think the CSIRO has completely torpedoed this uncosted nuclear fantasy of Peter Dutton’s. Nuclear costs more and it takes longer, and Peter Dutton won’t tell us where the reactors are going to go – which suburbs, which regions, which towns, which cities are going to house Peter Dutton’s reactors. And the madness of this I think is laid bare in the CSIRO report,” Chalmers said.

He said for Australia we have immense opportunity in the renewable sector as the world transitions to net zero. And one of the key motivations of the Budget was to ensure that Australia grabs the vast industrial and economic opportunities presented by the global net zero transformation.

“ It makes absolutely no sense for Australia to go down the nuclear road when there are options available to us which cost less and which can contribute to the grid sooner. And so there’s an important task for Angus Taylor today at the National Press Club – it’s time to tell Australians where the nuclear reactors will go and why they prefer a method of energy or an energy source which costs more and takes longer to build,” Chalmers said .

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Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said “Well, if you look at the top 20 economies in the world, Australia is the only economy that hasn't adopted nuclear power, or hasn't signed up to it. So, just ask yourself the question; do you think those 19 countries have got wrong and Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese have got is right? I don't think so.”

“I want to see zero emissions technology. The latest generation of nuclear, as we know with the submarine deal, Henderson will play a huge part where there will be a constant presence of a nuclear reactor on those submarines, and there are no safety issues, there are no issues around disposal because the Government under the AUKUS deal has signed up to dispose of the waste. But we can shore-up the renewable energy that's in the market,” He said.

“You won't have, frankly, any industry left in this country if they're relying on solar and wind because it's intermittent. At the moment in WA and across the country, we're telling big energy users, smelters, and in heavy industry otherwise, that they need to ramp down their production in an afternoon shift when people get home from work because they're plugging in their cars, they're turning on the washing machine, they're cooking dinners. That's not happening in other comparable markets. We want those industries where they've got an insatiable order for their products, for their commodities, to be ramping up their production, for the reasons that I spoke about earlier on,” He added.

“We've got to build our economy, not pull it down, and the Government has 90 per cent of the firming power coming out of the market by 2034, which is why you've got Chris Minns, and the Premier in Victoria and elsewhere – Labor Governments now negotiating with coal fired power generators to extend the life of those assets – and it's why you've got a reality of gas as well.

So, if you look at Ontario, and you look at other markets where they're paying a fraction of the electricity price that we are here in our country, it's because they've got nuclear in their system. It is a safe technology, it's going to provide cheaper electricity, it's going to provide greener electricity, and it's going to make sure that we don't get the blackouts and brownouts that the energy regulator is telling us about that'll happen under Anthony Albanese's renewables only policy,” He disclosed.

Labour has criticised the Opposition's nuclear stance due to missing details from the Liberal leader's budget reply last week.

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🗞️Treasurer: Nuclear Power Report "Torpedoes" Peter Dutton's Energy "Fantasy

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