Bid to lift NSW nuclear ban under bold proposal to reboot economy

There are plans to lift a ban on small reactors developing nuclear power in a new proposal being looked at by Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.

A ban on nuclear power generation for small scale reactors would be lifted under a bold proposal from the NSW Productivity Commission to lower energy costs.

The plan is one of 60 recommendations contained in the Productivity Commission’s White Paper designed to reboot the state’s economy.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said all 60 proposals from the Productivity Commission would be considered, though some are unlikely to go ahead.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the government “will consider everything” in shoring up the state’s power supply. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

“There are some that are controversial, but ultimately these are the debates and these are the discussions that we need to have to make our state a better place,” he said.

The news comes as plans to build a 900km-long electricity super highway between South Australia and NSW was approved on Monday.

Its builders say it will cut $64 from NSW household electricity bills annually.

In a boost for the state’s sparsely populated southwest, the EnergyConnect powerline project running from Robertstown in South Australia to Wagga Wagga will result in at least 1500 new jobs created during construction, with the project to also travel through the NSW towns of Colleambally, Hay and Balranald.

Electricity transmission network operators TransGrid confirmed on Monday the company would build the dev­elopment, after the Australian Energy Regulator approved funding for the project.

TransGrid said the move will allow increased cross-border burrowing of electricity during high-demand surges as well as allowing renewable energy from solar farms in the region to be injected directly into the state’s power grid.

“This is huge – we’re going to put 1500 jobs directly into construction in Wagga Wagga and the Riverina, as well as all the indirect jobs that’ll come on from that,” TransGrid chief executive Paul Italiano said.

As for the nuclear power generation proposal, the Productivity Commission report identified “a wide degree of uncertainty” about small scale nuclear reactors, in part because they could be too expensive. “Innovation would have to drive considerable cost reductions — not impossible, but also not expected,” the report says.

However, the Commission called for NSW to seek a ban on nuclear power generation to be lifted in order to provide another source of firming capacity in the grid. Asked directly about the proposal, Mr Perrottet said the government “will consider everything”.

“The government needs to, and we will be, considering all of these recommendations.’’