Opinion: Let’s go nuclear – we’re running out of time to keep the lights on

Nuclear energy was banned in Australia in 1998 after less than 10 minutes’ debate in the Senate. We’re paying for it now, writes Matt Canavan.

In March this year, Finland fired up the first nuclear reactor to open in Europe for 15 years.

Two months later, electricity prices in Finland plunged by 75 per cent. Eventually, output at the new plant had to be throttled because power prices were getting TOO low.

Despite constant promises that “renewables are the cheapest form of energy”, anyone who has got their electricity bill lately knows that this is a big fat lie.

Australia has been installing solar and wind energy at a rate four times faster (in per person terms) than Europe or North America. Yet, the more renewables we get, the higher our power prices go.

Unfortunately for Australia, we cannot take the Finnish approach because we are one of the few countries in the world where nuclear energy is illegal. Nuclear was banned in Australia via a Greens amendment in the Senate in 1998. There was less than 10 minutes of debate.

The Australian people never voted to make nuclear energy illegal. But our accidental ban on nuclear energy is now an albatross around our necks. A ban on nuclear energy never made much sense, but it is now out of date, out of step and we are running out of time to keep the lights on.

So that is why I and eight other Coalition senators have introduced a Bill to end the ban on nuclear energy. Last week, we tabled a Senate report into the Bill.

The overwhelming evidence to our committee supported the removal of the ban.

Lots of young people support nuclear energy. As 16-year-old William Shackel told the committee: “For far too long, young people like me have been sold slogans and facades of plans to address these challenges, that we are told to blindly trust ... we need every credible solution, including nuclear energy, on the table.”

What confuses me about the nuclear debate is that the most vocal critics of nuclear are the most alarmist about climate change. If you really believed we face doom from global warming, why wouldn’t you want to use a safe, proven, emission-free type of power?

Nuclear power is used all around the world. France has received two-thirds of its electricity from nuclear for decades, and 54 nuclear power stations are being built across 15 countries.

Despite our nuclear ban, Australia is buying nuclear submarines. Their nuclear reactors use the same technology as those used onshore. How could it be unsafe to have nuclear reactors onshore, but it is perfectly fine to have the same type of reactors sail around coastlines and dock in our ports?

Indeed, as it stands, we will become the only country that tries to have a nuclear submarine fleet without a large domestic nuclear energy industry. There are serious questions about whether we will be able to develop the necessary skills in nuclear energy without a broader range of career options than just life 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Our nuclear ban already risks our energy security, and now it risks our national security too.

Since the submarines decision, the critics have shifted their focus away from safety concerns to the cost. Even if they are right, high costs are not a reason to make something illegal. We haven’t banned the horse and buggy just because cars are more efficient.

But, in any case, the vast majority of real-world evidence shows that nuclear energy is an affordable way to make electricity. The critics like to quote the CSIRO, yet the CSIRO does not estimate the costs of any commercially available nuclear technologies. They only look at potential future technologies like small modular reactors.

In contrast, the International Energy Agency does look at the real-world performance of countries with nuclear energy. They conclude that “... electricity from the long-term operation of nuclear power plants constitutes the least cost option for low-carbon generation”.

Just look at Germany, which this year completed turning off all of its nuclear reactors. Germans now pay 60 per cent more for electricity compared to their neighbours, the French, who predominantly rely on nuclear energy.

Australia remains in the lucky position of seeing many countries manage the “energy transition” poorly. The Germans shut down nuclear and their power prices soared. The Finns installed nuclear and their power prices plummeted. We should heed these lessons.

If you want your power bill to come down, we need to go nuclear.

Matt Canavan is an LNP senator for Queensland

Originally published as Opinion: Let’s go nuclear – we’re running out of time to keep the lights on