Chris Bowen ridicules small nuclear modular reactors, says they need too many subsidies

As the Coalition moves towards a position on net zero, Chris Bowen said the Liberal and National parties’ in-principle backing for nuclear was nothing more than giving ‘false hope’ to voters.

Chris Bowen during question time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Chris Bowen has ridiculed the prospect of nuclear being a solution to a low carbon energy future and dismissed the opportunity of small-modular reactors, declaring the number of countries using the energy source was declining and it required massive government subsidies.

With Coalition MPs to have internal discussions over the future of their energy policy in Canberra this week amid deep divisions over net zero, the Climate Change and Energy Minister said the Liberal and National parties in-principle backing for nuclear was nothing more than giving “false hope” to Australians.

Writing in The Australian, Mr Bowen says the development of small-scale modular reactors is “not encouraging” with only one operational in both China and Russia. “Even in China, which is building some large nuclear reactors, their role pales into insignificance compared to renewables,” he writes. “The importance of ­nuclear in the overall Chinese energy mix is falling as China’s massive renewable rollout leaves nuclear in its wake.”

Mr Bowen likened the ­Coalition’s claim of growing global acceptance of nuclear as being akin to “chimera”, a concept that is very unlikely to come true.

The Liberal Party’s design for a nuclear reactor at the last federal election.

This despite the US and Britain in September striking a deal to “turbocharge the build-out of new nuclear power stations in both countries” but cutting regulation for the sector, with the Starmer government talking up a private sector proposal to build 12 SMRs in England’s north.

“The Liberals talk wistfully of a ‘nuclear renaissance’, telling us the rest of the world is going nuclear, and Australia will miss out unless we act. This renaissance is a chimera. It exists only in the minds of nuclear boosters,” Mr Bowen writes. “Renewable generation already far surpasses nuclear generation and over the course of the next 12 months wind and solar will separately surpass nuclear generation in importance.

“To hear LNP spokespeople and others boosting the nuclear renaissance, you’d think that the number of countries with nuclear in the mix is growing. It isn’t.

“In 2025, the number of economies that include nuclear generation in their system has fallen by one, with Taiwan having closed the last of its nuclear power ­stations.”

Sussan Ley and senator Andrew Bragg. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Bullard.

With Sussan Ley expected to back a nuclear energy industry that is largely funded by private sector investment, Mr Bowen writes that “the market will simply not deliver it”.

“The fact is that nuclear power stations hinge on big government subsidies to be viable. There is no nuclear construction anywhere in the world being undertaken solely by the private sector. You can look to the United Kingdom for example to see how the taxpayer has been on the hook for the eye-­wateringly expensive Hinkley and Sizewell new reactors.”

Despite slamming nuclear for relying on government subsidies, Mr Bowen’s renewables rollout also relies on taxpayer support including through the $20bn Rewiring the Nation fund and the Capacity Investment Scheme.

With supporters of nuclear pointing to the opportunity of SMRs, Mr Bowen says this technology was first promoted by the Coalition in 1989 by then opposition environment spokesman Peter McGauran. “Four decades on, nothing has changed. SMRs are still being promoted as the answer to our problems. And it’s still the case that not one has been built in the Western world,” he writes. “According to the World Nuclear Association, there are two in operation in the world: one in China, one in Russia. None operates commercially in comparable countries to Australia.

“Argentina did start construction of an SMR in 2014. In 2024, construction was halted, work incomplete with the head of Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commission saying ‘This reactor is not economically competitive’.”

Dan Tehan. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan accused Mr Bowen of being “a relic who doesn’t get with where the world is at”.

“It is obvious he doesn’t seriously believe in emissions reduction if he doesn’t believe in nuclear,” Mr Tehan said.

“If Chris Bowen is so confident that nuclear won’t work in Australia, why doesn’t he agree to lift the ban and let the market decide.

“Energy abundance is where the world is at and Australia will miss out if it doesn’t embrace nuclear as part of our energy mix, like every advanced economy is.”