There is still a lot we don't know — the Coalition still hasn't said how much it will cost, how much of the bill taxpayers will foot, or when all the nuclear plants would be built.
And those that remain are creaky and increasingly unreliable. Unexpected coal plant closures have been a significant contributor to recent high power prices. But there is still a mountain of work to be done, including new transmission lines and storage capability needed to make renewables work year-round. Labor is just shy of being on track for its 2030 emissions target and local community objections are threatening to obstruct the process.
That casts doubt over whether nuclear power would alone be a sufficient replacement for coal. The Coalition has sent mixed signals on that front — for example, David Littleproud said today he believed renewables had a role to play, but also said nuclear was "visionary" because it would mean a country "not covered in solar panels and wind turbines".
Coalition politicians have quibbled with the assumptions of that study, but it includes the cost of construction, generation and transmission and is the most detailed study available in the Australian context. That is more than a decade away, but it still falls short of the timeline suggested in GenCost, which puts the earliest possible date in the 2040s.
Those would be complicated pieces of legislation likely requiring years of consultation. But they also may struggle to get through the parliament. Even if the Coalition were to win a majority in the House of Representatives, it would need to defy two decades of history to win control of the Senate.