Coalition nuclear plan will have a ‘significant’ upfront cost but will be cheaper than under Labor

Peter Dutton concedes his nuclear energy plan will have a ‘significant’ upfront cost but hasn’t released the detail, as he attempts to convince voters of the ‘truly visionary’ policy.

Peter Dutton has conceded his nuclear energy plan for seven reactors will have a “significant” upfront cost.

Peter Dutton has conceded his nuclear energy plan for seven reactors will have a “significant” upfront cost but failed to release the numbers, pledging they will come in due course, as he attempts to convince voters the “truly visionary” policy will be safe and create hundreds of jobs with each power plant.

Addressing a Committee for Economic Development lunch in Sydney on Monday, the Opposition Leader will declare his proposed transformation of the energy system will be as important as the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Costello economic reforms.

Insisting it will be a test for Labor as to whether it joins with the Coalition on its nuclear pathway, Mr Dutton will appeal to regional and rural Australians by saying there’s no need to carpet Australia with industrial-scale solar and wind farms or transmission lines.

“Yes, our nuclear plan does have a significant upfront cost. But a whole new and vast transmission network and infrastructure won’t be needed. Moreover, the cost of our nuclear plants can be amortised and spread over a reactor’s 80-year lifespan,” Mr Dutton will say, according to excerpts of his speech.

“Under Labor’s renewables-only plan, every solar panel and wind turbine will need to be replaced three to four times over the same period. We will release our costings in due course – at a time of our choosing.

“And just as we were upfront about the locations of our nuclear sites, we will be upfront about the cost of nuclear energy. It’s a cost our nation can and must undertake.”

While lashing renewables as “part-time” and “unreliable” power, Mr Dutton will say the Coalition’s plan – which will include ramping up domestic gas production in the immediate term – will be a fraction of the cost of the Albanese government’s.

Jim Chalmers said on Sunday Mr Dutton’s “nuclear fantasy” was “economic insanity”, which will cost more, push power prices up and take longer to come online, while delivering a sliver of the energy Australia needs.

“It is divisive, and there are no details,” the Treasurer told Sky News’s Australian Agenda program.

“His speech is a big opportunity to come clean on the details, on the costs, on the timing, so Australians know what he’s seeking support for at the election. He is a big risk to energy and to power prices in this country. The fact that he’s not prepared to release those details I think should ring alarm bells for every Australian.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Promising voters economic, national and energy security under a Coalition government, Mr Dutton will say: “It’s a truly visionary policy unlike any put forward by a political party this century. It’s testimony to a determination to move beyond the short-termism which has come to define so much of policymaking in Western democracies in recent decades.

“Just as nuclear technology is safe for our submariners, it’s safe for our citizens. As it is for thousands of people in other countries who live near reactors.

“More than 75 per cent of coal plant workers have skills and experience which are transferable to nuclear plants. But each nuclear plant will also create hundreds of new jobs too. New industries will flourish. Thousands of jobs will be created.”

The latest integrated system plan released by the Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts 10,000km of transmission lines by 2050, with AEMO estimating a $122bn least-cost path to meet federal and state energy emissions reduction policies by the middle of the century.

The government has pointed to an Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report finding the introduction of nuclear power in Australia could see median household electricity bills rise by an average of $665 per year.