Nuclear power for SA to be discussed at Liberal London forum organised by David Speirs

Opposition Leader David Speirs is going to the UK to hold a nuclear energy discussion because he says the Premier wants to “have the conversation” – but can’t.

Nuclear energy’s potential to generate reliable, affordable electricity for South Australia will be discussed at high-powered London forum organised by Opposition Leader David Speirs.

During a taxpayer-funded overseas study tour to the United Kingdom, Mr Speirs also will visit defence installations including the Barrow-in-Furness nuclear submarine construction yard.

Mr Speirs, who will leave on Sunday, was offered the publicly funded trip by Premier Peter Malinauskas as a bipartisan gesture, when he made a lightning UK visit in March just after the AUKUS nuclear submarine plan was unveiled.

Mr Speirs’ August 7 nuclear energy roundtable in London will include government officials from Great British Nuclear, which on July 18 was charged with driving the rapid expansion of new nuclear power plants in the UK at an unprecedented scale and pace.

Announcing that move, UK Energy Secretary Grant Shapps said this would boost energy security, reduce fossil fuel imports, create more affordable power and grow the economy.

Mr Speirs’ roundtable also will include Rolls-Royce, which is supplying reactors for nuclear-powered submarines to be built in Adelaide under the AUKUS pact.

Opposition Leader David Speirs hoped to reality check nuclear energy opportunities for SA, particularly those spurred by AUKUS. Picture Matt Turner.

In an interview with The Advertiser, Mr Speirs said he hoped to reality check nuclear energy opportunities for SA, particularly those spurred by AUKUS.

“My public position, and really the (Liberal) party’s public position, is that we ought to be open and willing to have a conversation about how AUKUS changes the lie of the land from a policy and technological point of view, off the back of AUKUS having a vision for nuclear powered submarines in South Australia,” he said.

“There is a great opportunity here, we’re not fixed on anything, I don’t have that expertise. But I think, as an alternate leader of this state, I need to have my head in that space.

“I think there’s a big opportunity here. I think we have to have the conversation. I think (Premier) Peter Malinauskas thinks we have to have the conversation as well, but he’s not allowed to.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas and UK Defence Procurement Minister Alex Chalk in March at the Barrow-in-Furness nuclear submarine shipyard operated by BAE Systems. Picture: supplied

Mr Speirs used his June budget reply speech to urge restarting a nuclear energy conversation and considering another royal commission, warning Australia could “end up with an energy-based underclass” if people were unable to heat or cool their homes when necessary.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last December flatly rejected Mr Malinauskas’s position of being “open-minded” on nuclear power, after the Premier told The Advertiser it would be “foolhardy” to dismiss nuclear as a source of baseload energy with zero carbon emissions.

Former governor and nuclear royal commissioner Kevin Scarce last October said Australia should seriously consider embracing nuclear energy, alongside an Adelaide submarine build, as a carbon-free base load electricity source.

Mr Speirs, who will take two staff members on his eight-day trip, also will tour Adelaide frigate builder BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyard, Babcock’s Rosyth manufacturing and repair facility and meet with UK defence officials.

Originally published as Nuclear power for SA to be discussed at Liberal London forum organised by David Speirs