Chris Bowen rubbishes Ted O’Brien’s South Korean nuclear fact-finding mission

Labelling the study tour a ‘last-ditch’ attempt to make the opposition’s nuclear plans stack up, Chris Bowen hit out at his Coalition counterpart.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has blasted opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien’s nuclear fact-finding mission to South Korea, labelling the study tour a “last-ditch” attempt to make the ­Coalition’s planned tilt towards atomic energy stack-up.

After arriving in South Korea on Sunday, Mr O’Brien is leading a delegation to explore its development of nuclear technology, which the Coalition has signalled could play a role in its plan to build seven taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors.

The study tour, which will include a visit to a nuclear power plant and meeting with manufacturers of nuclear technology, was panned by Mr Bowen, who said his opposition counterpart was better off speaking with local energy experts. “Ted O’Brien is undertaking a last-ditch study tour,” Mr Bowen told The Australian.

“He could have saved on the airfare and stayed home to listen to the Australian experts who’ve consistently said that nuclear [power] will take too long, cost too much and push up household power bills.”

Speaking to this masthead ahead of his departure, Mr O’Brien said South Korea’s energy system, which uses nuclear generated power alongside coal, gas and renewables, was “keeping prices down” at a time when Australia has experienced a sharp rise in retail power prices.

The lower retail prices, however, largely owe to heavy government regulation of the state’s sole electricity retailer, Korea Electricity Power Corp (KEPCO), which has mandatory tariff rates.

While a ceiling on power prices has helped shield households from the global spike in energy costs, it has also left the state-run power company riddled with 203 trillion won ($224bn) of debt.

Businesses, meanwhile, have not been immune from price hikes on their power bills, with KEPCO announcing in October that large businesses would face a 10.2 per cent rise in electricity rates, while small and medium-sized firms would experience an increase of 5.2 per cent.

South Korea has experienced a revival in nuclear development and generation in recent years. Its suspended President, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been a strong proponent of nuclear power, planning to increase its share of electricity generation to 35 per cent by the mid-2030s, and commissioned con­struction of four nuclear reactors.

As a consequence, South Korea, which has traditionally relied on imported fossil fuels for its energy needs, generated more electricity from nuclear power than coal and natural gas for the first time in 2024.

Yet despite its growing emphasis on atomic energy, South Korea is struggling to fully use its nuclear facilities because of delayed rollout in transmission infrastructure.

This has forced reactors to reduce their output to prevent overloading the state’s electricity system.

The measure was necessary as existing transmission lines, which send electricity from the power plants to distribution substations, have already reached full capacity.

A similar problem risks arising in Australia, given transmission lines are already transporting renewable power or expected to do so in the future, resulting in a shortage of transmission capacity when nuclear energy is added.

While nuclear power plants maintain efficiency through their continuous high output, constantly adjusting how much electricity they supply ultimately lowers efficiency, and decreases energy production over time.