Opposition Leader David Speirs says small nuclear reactors should be considered for SA

Controversial small power stations costing in the “low billions” should be considered for SA, says Opposition Leader David Speirs.

South Australia should consider small modular nuclear reactors costing in the “low billions”, says Opposition Leader David Speirs, after a fact-finding industry summit in London.

In an interview with The Advertiser, Mr Speirs said his United Kingdom study tour last week included meetings with Rolls-Royce, which will supply reactors for Adelaide-built submarines under the AUKUS security pact.

Rolls-Royce also produces small modular nuclear reactors, which it pitches as low cost, deliverable and producing “clean, affordable energy for all”.

The factory-built nuclear power plant is transported as modules, then assembled in another specially designed on-site factory, which Rolls-Royce says radically reduces construction activity and creates “an architecturally beautiful structure”.

Proponents argue the cost, which Mr Speirs said would be in the “low billions”, would be cheaper than rewiring Australia’s high-voltage power lines for renewable energy.

Premier Peter Malinauskas, who last December argued people dedicated to decarbonising the electricity grid to tackle global warming should be open-minded about nuclear power, again declared cost was prohibitive.

Opposition Leader David Speirs, who has returned from a UK study tour. Picture Matt Turner.

But Mr Speirs said his London nuclear industry roundtable suggested small modular reactors might be economic for the state and nation.

“The roundtable suggested we should certainly take a good look at the feasibility of small modular reactors because they are coming down in cost,” he said.

“There are a lot under development at the moment. The main player in the UK working on this is really Rolls-Royce but there are other players as well.”

TerraPower, a firm founded by US billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 2008, is opening a Wyoming nuclear power plant cooled by liquid sodium rather than water. Mr Gates argues nuclear power, done right, “will help us solve our climate goals”.

Mr Speirs said small-scale nuclear reactors could provide “very stable baseload power for industry and residences, wherever they’re built”.

“The pace of change and innovation in this space is remarkable. In the coming two or three years, we will see these reactors in the UK, in Canada and in the USA – that could be a real game changer,” he said.

“The Liberal Party of South Australia is not about to announce that we’re building one of these things, far from it. But we should be really paying close attention to what’s happening globally and trying to see if there’s an opportunity for us off the back of the nuclear defence industry to launch a civil industry as well.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas, who says nuclear power is prohibitively expensive. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Premier Peter Malinauskas highlighted Georgia Power’s Vogtle power station, the first United States nuclear reactor in three decades, that was originally budgeted to cost $US14bn ($21.46bn) but that has escalated to more than $US30bn ($46bn) and been delayed seven years.

“I wish it wasn’t true, I wish there was a zero-carbon-emission, base load technology that was cheap and ready to go. But facts matter in the energy debate, and the policy should be informed by facts rather than a culture war ideological debate, otherwise it’s people who pay,” he told The Advertiser.