Anthony Albanese has described the Coalition’s plan for nuclear power as a ‘fantasy’ that will hurt investment in renewable energy.Anthony Albanese has described the Coalition’s plan for nuclear power as a ‘fantasy’ that will hurt investment in renewable energy.Anthony Albanese has accused the Coalition of hampering power price reductions in the short term by pursuing a nuclear power “fantasy” and “disrupting certainty” of investment in renewable energy.
“We want the information out there in bite-size bits, if you like, so that people can consume exactly what it is that we’re proposing and understand what it’s not proposing,” he told ABC TV.nuclear power could be set up in Australia no sooner than 2040 and would be at least 50% more expensive than solar and wind, even factoring in the costs of transmission and firming of renewables. A theoretical 1,000MW nuclear plant built today would cost at least $8.6bn.
“This is economic catastrophe,” he told Sky News. “When we look at the costs of nuclear, what we know is that it’s the most expensive form of new energy. Albanese noted in its nine years in office to 2022, the Coalition had wanted to build new coal power plants “and it ended up in zero”. He said the Coalition had also wanted to extend the life of existing coal plants but instead 14 announced closure “on their watch”.