Nuclear alert by Anthony Albanese on renewable funding

Anthony Albanese has warned the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy would undermine the nation’s ‘energy sovereignty’ and work against his flagship Future Made in Australia agenda.

Anthony Albanese in question time on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese has flagged that the Coalition’s nuclear power plan would undermine Labor’s flagship Future Made in Australia policy – to be introduced to parliament next week – with the Prime Minister claiming the use of reactors would set back renewables investment.

In a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Thursday, Mr Albanese will say the “true cost” of ­nuclear power would be the loss of investment in solar, wind and opportunities in green hydrogen – an outcome which would damage the nation’s “energy sovereignty”. This would come on top of the “hundreds of billions of dollars in the cost of constructing the (nuclear) reactors”.

In a draft version of his ­address, Mr Albanese said the ­Future Made in Australia Act was about putting the nation at the “economic centre of the global shift to net zero” and capitalising on the shift to renewables.

He said auctions would be held every six months under Labor’s Capacity Investment Scheme to deliver an extra 32 giga­watts of government-backed renewables and storage capacity by 2030. Mr Albanese said greater renewables investment would bring wholesale prices down while building Australia’s “energy sovereignty”. “That’s what our Future Made in Australia Act is all about,” he said.

Opposition climate and ­energy spokesman Ted O’Brien warned Labor had not revealed the “total system cost” of its own energy plan and that 90 per cent of 24/7 baseload power would exit the grid over the decade without a replacement system ready to go.

Responding to the 2024 Integrated System Plan released by the Australian Energy Market Operator, Mr O’Brien took aim at the suggested $122bn cost of the required investment for all utility-scale generation, storage, firming and transmission infrastructure needed to achieve net zero by 2050. Citing the ISP report, Mr O’Brien said the $122bn figure did “not include the cost of commissioned, committed or anticipated projects, consumer energy ­resources or distribution network upgrades”.

He preferred the much higher figure of $1.2 trillion based on the Net Zero Australia study by Princeton University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland, warning Labor’s energy plan would put the “lights out”.

As the political row escalated over the costs of the competing energy plans, a grouping of ­nuclear advocates and experts wrote to the Prime Minister, as well as state and territory leaders, to warn about the “spread of misinformation” about nuclear ­energy following the release of the Coalition’s policy.

The letter from the Nuclear for Australia campaign expressed “deep concern over the politicisation and misrepresentation of ­nuclear technology debates” and an “increase in the spread of misinformation”.

It said the continued dissemination of misinformation was “adversely affecting the bipartisan-supported AUKUS program” and tarnishing the reputation of the Australian ­nuclear community.

Signatories of the letter included experts affiliated with the Nuclear for Australia movement founded in December 2022 by then 16-year-old Will Shackel and chaired by the former chief executive of Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).

Nuclear commissioning expert Tony Irwin, energy economist Robert Barr, nuclear security expert Jasmin Diab and nuclear law expert Kirsty Braybon signed the letter along with Mr Shackel.

“We observe with dismay such tactics as scaremongering and deliberate disinformation are being propagated by various government channels,” they said.