Federal Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has shot down technology billionaire Bill Gates’ plea for nuclear power to be on the agenda, saying it is too expensive to be part of a solution to help Australia reach net zero by 2050.

But pro-nuclear advocates said the Albanese government, especially Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Mr Bowen, was hiding behind the cost argument to conceal its deep-seated ideological opposition to the technology that stemmed back to the 1970s and ’80s.