Matt Canavan says Australia must ‘keep the nuclear option open’

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan says Australia must keep nuclear as an option in the wake of the early closure of one of the country’s coal-fired power stations.

FORMER resources minister Matt Canavan says Australia must “keep the nuclear option open” as continuing coal fired power station closures could threaten energy security.

Senator Canavan seized on news yesterday that Victoria’s Yallourn coal-fired power station would close four years earlier than scheduled as a critical warning sign that renewables would not keep up with future demand.

Senator Canavan has been a leading force behind a push within the Nationals to exploit Australia’s coal and uranium reserves for baseload power.

Victoria’s Yallourn coal-fired power station will shut down four years earlier than expected in 2028. Picture: Jason Edwards

In a speech in Townsville today he is expected to call the Yallourn announcement part of a “slow moving train smash”.

“Over the next decade this series of continuing coal fired power station closures offers to have more sequels than Police Academy, and just like Police Academy, each iteration promises to get worse and worse,” he will say, according to prepared notes.

“The shutdown of Liddell in 2023 promises to be the third addition in the series, with Yallourn then promising to slot in to the Police Academy 4 role, which incidentally was Captain Maloney’s last and has a 0 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.”

Senator Matt Canavan. Picture: Adam Yip

Senator Canavan says Australia must build “like for like” power stations to replace all the coal power scheduled to exit the grid over the next decade.

He said he would continue to call for building clean coal fired power stations to use “Australia’s high quality coal”.

And the Nationals would move amendments to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation that would remove bans on nuclear technology and power.

“Now this won’t allow us to build a nuclear power station straight away – other legislation bans nuclear power,” he will say.

“But we should invest in nuclear technology today so that we are ready to adopt the latest nuclear developments if we choose to in the future.

“Another benefit of nuclear power would be that it would give us the option of buying nuclear submarines in the future.”