Andrew Bolt: Some Labor figures know the jig is up with the nuclear hysteria

Alarmists have pushed the nuclear-will-kill-us fraud for too long. But with Peter Dutton inching towards a go-nuclear policy, it’s time for Anthony Albanese to face the facts.

Global warming believers must put on their adult pants and make a hard choice to keep the lights on.

Which fake scare do they give up? The global warming “crisis” or nuclear-will-kill-us fraud?

Can’t have both, guys. Not with the Albanese Government’s plans for renewable energy already running years late and billions over budget.

And now Opposition leader Peter Dutton is inching towards a go-nuclear policy that will test the government’s grip on reality.

Dutton’s energy spokesman Ted O’Neill noted countries like the United States are investing in new small modular reactors that can be hooked up to our existing transmission lines and produce near-zero-emissions electricity night and day.

The Albanese Government’s plans for renewable energy already running years late and billions over budget. Picture: Martin Ollman

Wind and solar power can’t match that. Worse, the government’s plan to build more than $20bn of transmission lines to hook up the new wind and solar plants we’ll need is drowning in higher costs, workforce shortages and fierce resistance from landowners.

So choose. Give up the warming scare?

Why not? The small warming we’ve seen has actually helped produce record cereal crops and full dams. We’ve had fewer cyclones. But fine, if global warming is your religion, then give up the nuclear scare. After all, you were wrong to think there’s no safe level of exposure and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster killed 30,000 people (in fact, more like 65).

Time to face sober facts: Nuclear power costs more than coal but at least we can build reactors where old coal-fired generators are, and use the same wires to give us electricity as climate-friendly as wind and solar, but around the clock.

Nuclear reactors use the same wires to give us electricity as climate-friendly as wind and solar, but around the clock. Picture: AFP

Some Labor figures know the jig is up with the nuclear hysteria.

Peter Malinauskas, South Australia’s premier, last December said “the ideological opposition … to nuclear power is ill-founded” and “for someone like myself, who is dedicated to a decarbonisation effort” nuclear made sense.

But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a Midnight Oil fan, retorted that nuclear was “irrelevant”. He’s claimed nuclear is too expensive and would take too long to set up.

Too long! Labor’s said that for longer than it takes to build a dozen reactors. The United Arab Emirates has, in just three years, got three new nuclear plants, producing almost as much low emissions electricity as the wind and solar plants Denmark has built over 25 years.