Anthony Albanese in stark contrast with UK Labour’s Keir Starmer over ‘critical’ nuclear power
The Australian Labor Party’s unwavering antinuclear stance is at odds with left-wing political parties abroad, and experts say Albanese’s approach jeopardises the nation’s climate goals.
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Labor’s unwavering antinuclear stance is at odds with left-wing political parties abroad investing in reactors to reach net zero, amid warnings the approach jeopardises Australia’s climate goals.
Pro-nuclear experts say the “rigidity” of the Albanese Government’s nuclear opposition is a risk to Australia’s green transition, as many of Labor’s political counterparts in Europe signal plans to build more reactors to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
UK Labour’s Keir Starmer has described nuclear power as a “critical part” of Britain’s energy mix and has promised to extend the lifetime of existing plants and get new reactors “over the line”.
In its “manifesto” outlining policies for the July 1 general election, Labour has pledged to end the “dithering” on nuclear power and ensure the “long-term security of the sector”.
Construction of additional reactors is currently underway in France and Slovakia, while several other European nations, including Finland, have plans to build more.
Former chief of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Adi Paterson said the nation’s antinuclear stance had been driven by “completely understandable” historical context, such as opposition to nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, related ecological concerns and Cold War fears.
But he said this lead to a “radical oversimplification” of the nuclear energy debate, which “crystallised” a “long term rigidity” on the issue within the Left faction of the Labor Party.
“Labor Party insight into nuclear power has been corrupted by the structures they have, because they have isolated the Right and lost touch with the sectors where people make things with machines,” he said.
Mr Paterson said across Europe nations aspiring to have a low carbon grid had accepted the need for nuclear as a source of baseload power to support the net zero transition.
“There is no pathway to net zero with wind and solar … as we can’t scale the batteries to get there,” he said.
Australian Nuclear Association vice president Robert Parker said the UK has always had a more bipartisan position on the technology, but Australia was held back by polarised politics.
“People who are advocating nuclear, are not advocating for it as an absolute, but as an optimum mix with renewables,” he said.
“But in a polar argument that nuance is lost.”
Mr Parker said Labor’s approach in Australia was also impacted by the threat to its inner city electorates from the Greens, who are “fiercely antinuclear”.
A spokesman for Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said nuclear power was “too expensive and too slow” for Australia, noting every country in the world with reactors had experienced “massive cost blowouts and delays”.
“Even supporters of nuclear energy in other countries like Bill Gates and the IEA say it is the wrong answer for Australia,” he said.
In the UK, Britain’s first new reactor in a generation, Hinkley Point C, has suffered a cost blowout of 30 per cent to about $62 billion while its delivery time of 2027 has been pushed out to the 2030s.
Construction on new reactors in France and Slovakia has also been hampered by soaring costs and time delays.
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