The Coalition is promising to reveal costings for its nuclear reactors before the next election as it defends its decision to withhold the key detail from Wednesday’s major announcement.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s long-awaited coal-to-nuclear plan was dismissed as a “scam” after it didn’t include the potential price tags to build reactors at the seven proposed sites – including Collie in WA.
The cost is particularly relevant given the Commonwealth would own the asset under Mr Dutton’s proposal, leaving taxpayers on the hook for budget blowouts.
Mr Dutton has defended the decision to withhold the costings, saying the Coalition was deliberately choosing to drip out details in “bite-sized bits” so the public could wrap their heads around it.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor confirmed the full costings would be released prior to the next federal election, due in May 2025, but wouldn’t provide a more specific timeframe.
The absence of crucial detail from Wednesday’s announcement was at odds with comments in February from shadow climate change minister Ted O’Brien that indicated key questions around costs and potential sites would be answered when the policy was unveiled.
The potential cost of building a nuclear reactor is citied by critics, including Labor, to argue the technology is economically unviable in Australia.
The nation’s top science agency last month calculated a large-scale power plant could cost more than $8.5 billion to build, and potentially double that amount for the first reactor.
![Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a signing ceremony at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, June 17, 2024. Li Qiang, who is second only to President Xi Jinping, is on a four-day visit to Australia. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING](https://timesofsydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/fb4eaad62efdd7953d7df96cd882843246549543-4x3-x0y373w2841h2131.jpg)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese predicted the costings would remain hidden from voters as he again attacked Mr Dutton’s plan as a “fantasy”.
“It will be, ‘Just trust me’. Just the same as Peter Dutton has said that the 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, ‘Oh well, we’ll let you know all of that after the election’,” Mr Albanese told ABC’s RN Breakfast.
Five of the seven sites have been earmarked for large-scale nuclear reactors while the other two, Collie and Northern Power Station in SA, have been picked to host small modular reactors.
Mr Dutton on Wednesday accepted his plan would be expensive but claimed it would be a “fraction” of the cost of Labor’s renewables-focused path to net zero by 2050.
Under the Opposition’s proposal, the first two reactors would be built between 2035 and 2037 with all seven up and running before 2050.
Even if Mr Dutton triumphs at the the next election, he would need to overturn a federal ban on nuclear power and convince hostile Premiers to lift their own State-based moratoriums in order to realise his nuclear ambition.