Bill Gates says nuclear power is toughest challenge we face as global energy chiefs want net zero

Bill Gates has weighed in on the battle global energy chiefs are facing, with a new warning on how we can keep the lights on.

It will be impossible to reach net zero emissions without nuclear power, according to global energy chiefs who are calling on governments to back game-changing new technology.

The Albanese government has refused to consider nuclear power in Australia, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen labelling the Coalition’s push to start a conversation as a “complete joke”.

But at a nuclear conference in Washington DC, the world’s energy ministers have been told the controversial technology is essential to meeting climate targets and delivering reliable and affordable energy.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said nuclear power was one of a “discrete number of solutions” the world had to decarbonise, as he called for greater “political conviction”.

“It is the world’s brightest and most prestigious environmentalists and scientists who have agreed that without nuclear, getting to zero and getting to decarbonisation of our economies would simply be impossible,” he said.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who now leads a nuclear power company, said the technology was crucial for a task “harder than any challenge humans have ever faced”.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is leading the nuclear push with his company TerraPower. Picture: Michael Loccisano (Getty Images)

His TerraPower firm is on the verge of building an advanced nuclear reactor to replace a coal-fired power station in the United States.

“We’re at a pivotal moment for energy innovation,” Mr Gates said.

Mr Grossi said while small modular reactors had been discussed for years, he was now confident “this is going to happen”.

“We have to do it, we have to do it fast and we have to do it safely,” he told the IAEA summit.

“We have to be led by science, by economically feasible decisions, and not by ideology.”

In a report earlier this year, the International Energy Agency declared nuclear power capacity needed to double by 2050 to reach net zero emissions.

Executive director Fatih Birol told energy ministers he had “huge expectations” for small modular reactors, but that governments needed to incentivise investments in the technology.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said America wanted to lead the way.

“We see enormous potential in nuclear power to advance our climate goals, to enhance our energy security, to widen affordable energy access, to create millions of high-quality, good-paying jobs,” she said.

William Magwood, the Director-General of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency, said advanced nuclear technologies were “game-changers” that provided “an opportunity to spread this technology safely … in all corners of the world”.

While he acknowledged the nuclear industry had a “reputation of failure”, including delays and cost overruns, Mr Magwood said that needed to change.

“If we aren’t successful in delivering these new technologies … it’s a failure of our societies to rise to the climate challenge and a failure of our generation to meet its responsibilities,” he said.

Energy ministers from around the world are delivering statements on their nuclear plans to the summit this week, but it is understood Australia will not be involved.

Originally published as Bill Gates says nuclear power is toughest challenge we face as global energy chiefs want net zero