Too slow and too expensive: House committee says Coalition nuclear plan won’t help climate targets

An Interim Report was released on Tuesday by the House Select Committee on Nuclear Energy, and splits on party lines, with the independent MP Monique Ryan listing a myriad reasons why nuclear is unsuitable for Australia.

Labor MPs have the numbers on the committee and their majority report states that nuclear power “cannot be deployed in time to support Australia’s critical energy transition targets and climate commitments, or to assist the coal workforce and communities in their transition away from the coal industry.” 

The interim report says the committee “received compelling evidence nuclear power would cost consumers more to use”. The report continues:

“Evidence received about the private sector’s lack of interest in investing in nuclear power in Australia and the history of issues with private investment in nuclear power internationally highlights the financial challenges for this source of power, making taxpayer funding of an uncertain nuclear venture during a cost-of-living crisis a significant risk.”

The report notes that the evidence the committee received “strongly indicated SMR [small modular reactor] technology is not yet commercially available and so is not a viable option for Australia’s energy needs.”

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen commented on the report’s findings:

“Peter Dutton is determined to ignore the experts, reverse policies that bring the cost of energy down, and stick his head in the sand until the 2040s wishing his $600bn nuclear scheme will fix everything. It’s a disaster for our energy system now, and a guaranteed recipe for big bills, blackouts, and bad investments. “

“We already have a solution that works for today, and for this critical decade, that delivers jobs for people transitioning away from coal now, that reduces emissions, and that gets more of the cheapest form of energy into the grid. That solution is reliable renewable energy and the Albanese Government is delivering it.”

Independent MP Monique Ryan

If the Coalition hoped to sway independent MP and committee member Dr. Monique Ryan, they were sorely disappointed. Dr. Ryan said in her ‘Additional Comments’ to the main report that an “ongoing pursuit of nuclear energy options will only perpetuate and increase Australia’s reliance on coal and gas”.

Dr. Ryan reached the following conclusions:

* There are considerable roadblocks to nuclear energy in this country

* Necessary regulatory framework for health, safety, security, environmental impacts, and transport of fuels and waste would likely take some years to develop

* Australia currently lacks the workforce and technical capability required for building multiple large-scale nuclear reactors

* Independent experts (including from the CSIRO and Australian Energy Regulator) repeatedly told the Inquiry that it would take at least 15 years to build a single nuclear reactor — possibly as long as 25 years

* The Coalition’s proposal would provide only 15% of the country’s electricity requirements by 2050

* Under current projections, by 2030 more than 84% of the main national electricity grid will be powered by renewables; 96% by 2035

* Nuclear power is the most expensive form of energy

* Nuclear power does not compete economically

* Australians would pay more for electricity generated from nuclear plants

* Nuclear energy lacks social licence in many parts of Australia

* The impact of nuclear power generation on Australia’s water supplies has been inadequately considered by the Coalition in its proposal.

Coalition dissenting report

The Coalition committee member’s dissenting report goes to some lengths to defend that Coalition’s indefensible claim that nuclear power would reduce energy costs and power bills. Those claims have been thoroughly debunked.

Among many other accounting tricks, the Coalition assumes a capital cost for nuclear power of A$10,000 per kilowatt despite recent projects in France, the UK and the US costing 2.5 times that amount on average.

No explanation is given by the Coalition as to why its bogus economic report was not released until mid-December, when the committee had nearly completed its schedule of public hearings.

The dissenting report asserts that ‘no nuclear means no net zero’. In fact, nuclear power could barely begin to make the slightest contribution to reducing emissions by 2050.

This week the Climate Change Authority (CCA) released a detailed analysis concluding that the Coalition’s energy plan would result in an additional two billion tonnes of greenhouse emissions. “Prioritising nuclear at this time would be inconsistent with Australia’s national emissions reduction priorities and commitments,” CCA Chair Matt Kean said.

The Coalition’s response was to threaten to sack Kean (a former NSW Liberal energy minister and treasurer) and to scrap the CCA. The Abbott Coalition government defunded the independent Climate Commission and tried but failed to kill off the CCA and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Kean responded: “I’m not going to be bullied or silenced for standing up for the science and the evidence by Ted O’Brien or anyone. My job is to continue to provide frank and fearless advice, even if that’s uncomfortable, in the interest for climate policy and the interests of the nation.”

Nuclear thuggery

The Coalition’s threats to the CCA and Matt Kean are pure thuggery.

So is the Coalition’s threat to use compulsory acquisition laws to acquire sites to build nuclear reactors from energy companies that are openly critical of the Coalition’s nuclear plan. Those companies are planning their exit from coal and its replacement with renewables and storage projects.

Likewise, the Coalition’s threat to override state governments and state laws is nuclear thuggery. And the threat to override community opposition is nuclear thuggery. Peter Dutton says it is in “the national interest to proceed” with nuclear reactors even in the face of adamant public opposition.

Even Coalition MPs are on the outer with the leadership’s nuclear crusade. One told The Australian on December 13: “You’d think they might bring us inside the tent. It used to be the leadership would run the party rooms through the policy and detail to get our backing. Now we are not even a rubber stamp.”

The Dutton Coalition’s all-embracing nuclear thuggery stands in stark contrast to shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien’s comments in 2019 that a future government should only proceed with nuclear power on the condition that it make ‘a commitment to community consent as a condition of approval for any nuclear power or nuclear waste disposal facility’.”

Dr. Jim Green is the national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia.