Liberals call for restart to conversation about nuclear generation in budget reply speech

SA must restart a conversation – and consider a “royal commission 2.0” – on nuclear generation as a source of affordable and reliable power, the state opposition says.

South Australia must restart a conversation – and consider a “royal commission 2.0” – on nuclear power as a source of affordable and reliable energy, the state opposition says.

Opposition Leader David Speirs told parliament Australia was heading into “a very scary place with energy policy”, leaving people unable to heat their homes in winter or cool them in summer.

“We could end up with an energy-based underclass in this nation if we do not get energy policy right,” he said in his budget reply speech on Tuesday.

He said governments needed to keep an open mind with regard to all energy solutions available in Australia at the moment.

“It may very well be that consideration of nuclear energy in some form, likely small modular reactors, will be necessary,” he said.

In 2016, the SA Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission recommended removing the existing legal prohibitions on nuclear power generation and establishing a nuclear waste repository to pump $445bn into the state economy over 70 years.

But it said nuclear power would not be commercially viable in SA under current market rules.

Mr Speirs said a lot had changed since then – both the defence and national security landscape and the desire to move quickly towards net zero emissions.

“Nuclear-powered submarines are now proposed to be built in Adelaide and that could very well change the direction of thinking around this area as well,” he said.

“It will certainly change the way that we behave with regard to the presence of nuclear material in South Australia and the range of security requirements that will be required and the range of skills that will be required.

“Perhaps it is the time to reopen that royal commission again—have a royal commission 2.0—and start thinking about what South Australia’s role could be in that fuel cycle, some seven years since we last considered it.”

Mr Speirs said governments must also be open to solutions on how to transition to net zero.

Opposition Leader David Speirs wants to restart a conversation about nuclear power in South Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Naomi Jellicoe

“South Australia may be an exception from time to time, but increasingly there is a view that, without having the nuclear fuel cycle as part of the energy mix, the dream of net zero simply will not be possible for many Western jurisdictions,” he said.

He said the uranium deposits in South Australia and AUKUS nuclear submarine deal meant now was an opportune time to have a conversation about nuclear with the business community.

Premier Peter Malinauskas declined to comment on Tuesday but has previously said he was “open-minded” to nuclear power.

Mr Malinauskas last December opened the door to nuclear power, arguing Adelaide-based submarine construction would bust “ill-founded” ideological myths about atomic safety.

But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flatly rejected the Premier’s position, after Mr Malinauskas said it would be “foolhardy” to dismiss nuclear as a source of baseload energy with zero carbon emissions.

The state government has spruiked its $593m Hydrogen Jobs Plan as a means of ensuring and more reliable energy.

It has argued the state-owned power plant, to be built at Whyalla, will drive new jobs and industry by harnessing wind and solar energy to produce hydrogen and generate clean electricity.

Originally published as Liberals call for restart to conversation about nuclear generation in budget reply speech