Chris Bowen stokes climate wars over nuclear ahead of Dunkley by-election

Chris Bowen has attacked Peter Dutton’s zero-emissions nuclear push as a ‘triumph of culture wars over climate pragmatism’ and slammed the Coalition for using ‘distraction and delay’ tactics.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Chris Bowen has attacked Peter Dutton’s push for zero-emissions nuclear energy as a “triumph of culture wars over climate pragmatism” and accused the Coalition of promoting nuclear power as a “distraction and delay tactic”.

Ramping up the climate wars ahead of next Saturday’s crucial Dunkley by-election in Melbourne, the Climate Change and Energy Minister said the Opposition Leader’s advocacy for ­nuclear power “has taken on a singular importance in the culture wars”.

“It’s striking that a party that once prided itself on economic rationalism could embrace a frolic so spectacularly uneconomic. This is the triumph of culture wars over climate pragmatism in the alternative government,” Mr Bowen, writing in The Weekend Australian, said.

As Mr Dutton and opposition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien finalise their election policy, Mr Bowen said the “alleged boom in small modular reactors is … a mirage”.

“China and Russia are the only two countries to have installed them. The US has now abandoned its ‘flagship’ commercial-scale pilot SMR (promised back in 2008), wearing 70 per cent cost blowouts without having started construction on a single reactor,” he said.

“We know the Russian SMRs have extraordinarily low load factors and that nuclear waste from the SMR process is disproportionate to their output. The Chinese data is more opaque, but given SMRs generate about 300MW (compared to a coal-fired power station at 2000MW) we have no reason to believe there is anything approaching a serious contribution to China’s energy demand from their two units.”

Nationals and Liberal MPs last week told The Australian they backed the installation of nuclear reactors at coal-fired power station sites given their similar footprints, the long-term guarantee of zero-emissions baseload energy and direct access into the grid.

Amid speculation Anthony ­Albanese could head to the polls this year, Mr Dutton and Mr O’Brien are close to finalising an energy and climate change policy focused on lowering power prices, firming renewables with nuclear and ensuring there’s enough gas in the grid to secure baseload power as coal plants exit.

The Coalition policy will ­include details on where nuclear reactors could be built, the cost of nuclear, timelines on projected ­delivery and the complementary roles renewables, gas and coal will play ahead of nuclear potentially coming online in the 2030s.

Mr Bowen with renewables ally and Tattarang chairman Andrew Forrest at Uungula Wind Farm in central west NSW.

Despite prominent ALP Right-faction figures and union leaders supporting the consideration of nuclear energy to fast-track pathways to net zero by 2050 and protect industrial jobs, Mr Bowen said global investment in renewables “constitutes three-quarters of all power generation investment”. Mr Bowen on Friday night launched a new Solar Consumer Guide, to help Australians pick the right rooftop solar and battery systems. It is promoted as providing a “single source of truth” on rooftop solar and batteries, which he said would allow more people to “tap into solar, take control of their electricity bills and save money”.

Amid record spikes in electricity and gas bills, the Albanese government is on track to break its 2022 election promise to slash $275 a year from household ­energy bills by 2025.

Ahead of MPs returning to parliament on Monday, Mr Bowen said that nuclear projects across the globe were “falling over ­because of cost and time overruns”. “Last year the world ­installed 440GW of renewable ­capacity. This is more than the world’s entire existing nuclear capacity built up through decades of investment. By early 2025 renewable energy will surpass coal as the planet’s largest source of energy, while coal, gas and nuclear will all shrink market share,” he wrote.

“Nuclear and coal combined, however, account for only 16 per cent of new global power investment. In 2005, electricity companies in the US pledged to build more than 30 reactors. Only four ever commenced construction. Two were abandoned due to massive cost and time delays.”

Mr Bowen said the Coalition has been “promising to reveal the details of its long nuclear fairytales soon … it can’t come soon enough”.

“No plan for nuclear power in Australia will survive contact with reality. Australian people deserve more than hot air to power their homes and businesses,” he said.

“Nuclear is not being pushed as a genuine alternative to renewables. It’s being used as a distraction and a delay tactic.”

He accused the Coalition and nuclear advocates of opportunistically seizing on this month’s shutdown of the Loy Yang A coal plant in Victoria, which tripped after transmission towers collapsed during a major storm event.