Bowen blasts Dutton absence at potential nuclear sites
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has ramped up the attack against Peter Dutton’s proposal for nuclear energy reactors to be plugged in on the site of coal plants.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has ramped up the attack on Peter Dutton’s proposal for nuclear energy reactors to be plugged in on the site of coal plants.
Mr Bowen said the Opposition Leader doesn’t understand community attitudes to the idea because since the 2022 election he hasn’t visited any of the seven locations that could potentially host a reactor.
Mr Dutton has spent much of the week defending the Coalition’s nuclear energy proposal after the CSIRO released modelling that found a large-scale nuclear plant would take at least 15 years and about $8.6bn to build.
Hitting back at the claim nuclear energy was not commercially feasible, Mr Dutton said Labor was happy to pump billions of dollars into green hydrogen in this month’s budget despite the technology also not yet being viable.
“Green hydrogen, which is in the government’s plan, that’s not commercially viable yet. So when they say it’ll take five or 10 or 15 years (for nuclear energy) … they ignore the fact that we’ve got a transition between now and 2050,” he told the Nine Network’s Today. “It doesn’t have to be installed tomorrow.”
Mr Dutton said communities near coal-fired power stations “were in favour” of the nuclear proposal “because they understand the technology”.
But in a broadside at Mr Dutton on Friday, Mr Bowen said the Coalition leader had not visited any of the seven sites that could host a reactor. He cited Yallourn, Eraring, Bayswater, Gladstone, Tarong, Collie and Muja, all of which are due to close between 2025 and 2035.
“Dutton claims he understands energy communities which would potentially host nuclear reactors but he hasn’t visited one this term,” Mr Bowen said.
“He says he’s got polling that shows those same communities he’s not visited supporting his risky reactor plan. That means he’s already picked the sites. It’s past time he had an honest conversation with these communities, rather than relying on his ‘secret polling’.”
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