Coalition’s Peter Dutton announces seven proposed nuclear reactor locations

The Coalition has pitched seven sites for nuclear power plants across Australia, but admitted it hasn’t yet calculated the cost of the plan. Find out where they would be located.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has pitched seven nuclear power plants as the solution to Australia keeping the lights on and driving down energy prices with a mix of renewables and gas.

Mr Dutton on Wednesday announced the locations for the plants and said the Coalition’s energy plan would not require the 28,000km of new poles and wires needed to connect renewables to the grid.

“We’ve been very clear about the fact that we don’t believe in that model,” he said.

Multiple Coalition MPs said the proposed former coal-fired power station sites for the reactors included Liddell and Mount Piper in NSW, Loy Yang in Victoria, Port Augusta in South Australia, Callide and Tarong in Queensland and Collie in Western Australia.

The nuclear power stations would be owned by the federal government, similar to how energy projects like the Snowy Hydro scheme are owned.

Two new sites will be commissioned by 2037 as part of the plan.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton is finalising the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy. Picture: NewsWire

However, the Coalition said it had not calculated the cost of its plan to roll out seven nuclear power stations in Australia, with Mr Dutton admitting it will be a “big bill” and claiming he will have “more to say” in the future.

Mr Dutton said the Coalition had done analysis on each of the proposed sites and will work with experts to determine the best nuclear technology for each region.

“It will be a big bill, there’s no question about that,” he said.

“But this is about modernising our energy system, it’s about making sure we have cheaper electricity.”

Mr Dutton said there were “limitations” on what could be decided during opposition compared to if the Coalition was in government.

He claimed the nuclear plan would still be a “fraction” of the current government’s estimated costs.

Nationals leader David Littleproud described it as a “proud day” to be handing down what he said was a “vision for regional Australia”.

“Under a Coalition government we will change not only the culture of this country, but leave a legacy for this country,” he said.

Mr Littleproud said by not rolling out solar panels, wind turbines and the transmission lines needed to connect them to the grid, Australian farmers would be left to focus on providing food security for the country.

He said said the Coalition’s nuclear policy would be “one of the biggest investments of any federal government in a regional Australian town, ever”.

A concept design of a zero emissions small modular reactor the Coalition proposed on Wednesday.

Mr Littleproud said farmers did not need to be concerned about the water required to run nuclear plants, as the chosen locations already had an allocation of the resource for coal fired power.

“There’s already water allocations at these coal fired power sites and obviously when they shut down, they transfer to a nuclear power plant,” he said.

“So it’s all ... within the existing water entitlements.”

Coalition energy and climate change spokesman Ted O’Brien said Australia was “running out of energy” under the government.

“Renewables have stalled under Labor, gas is being suffocated with a lack of supply, and we have 90 per cent of Australia’s 24/7 baseload power exiting the grid over the next decade with no chance of a replacement being ready in time,” he said.

“Labor is turning off one system before having another one ready to go.”

The Liddell Power Station in the NSW Hunter has been slated as a nuclear power site.

Mr O’Brien said the Coalition would still have an energy mix of renewables, gas and as coal fired power exits it would be replaced with nuclear.

Mr Dutton was confident the communities where the Coalition plans to build nuclear power stations will support having a reactor in their backyard.

He said he expected a fear campaign from Labor, but he wanted a “mature conversation” in Australia about nuclear.

“The fact is that in these communities, people in some cases for generations have worked in these coal mines or within the coal fired power stations or they’re a boilermaker or their electrician and they’ve worked in and around these sites for their whole life,” he said.

“When you speak to a lot of those people, they’re instantly supportive of this proposal, because it gives a decade’s worth of economic investment into that community.”

The Loy Yang power station in Victoria has been pitched as a site for nuclear power in the Coalition’s plan. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

Mr Dutton said he believed Australia was able to talk about nuclear now because the conversation had already been started by the AUKUS submarine deal, and also as technology had improved significantly in the last 50 years.

Asked about the waste produced by the seven proposed nuclear plants, Mr Dutton said each would produce a volume equivalent to the size of a “can of coke,” which would be stored on the site of the reactor while it operated and then likely kept on Defence land.

Mr Dutton also dismissed suggestions he would struggle to get state governments to agree to lift nuclear bans, saying he would “negotiate” with them in the future.

However, the plan to build a nuclear power reactor in the Hunter region could be scuttled by NSW legislation banning the construction of nuclear power facilities across the state.

NSW Premier Chris Minns. Picture:NewsWire/ Monique Harmer

Premier Chris Minns is bracing for a fight with Mr Dutton over the issue, declaring on Wednesday that his government would keep the NSW ban on nuclear reactors “in place”.

To build a nuclear facility in NSW, the state parliament would need to repeal an almost three-decades old ban which imposes fines of $110,000 for anyone who constructs or operates a nuclear facility.

The ban has exemptions for medical research and nuclear powered vessels.

“Our ban stays in place, we’re not repealing it. I’d be surprised if the NSW Liberal and National party want to repeal it as well,” Mr Minns told Sky News.

Mr Minns queried how much the cost of the nuclear would be, alongside who would foot the bill.

The Tarong power station in Queensland was proposed as one of the seven nuclear sites.

Anthony Albanese acknowledged that cost of living pressures are behind an increase in support for nuclear energy but said the Coalition’s plan is a “fantasy” that makes “no economic sense”.

The prime minister rejected the need to lift the ban on nuclear energy and let the market decide saying it had “already sorted it out”.

“We know cost of living is causing pressures for people when it comes to energy,” he told ABC radio.

“Coal-fired power plants are closing, 14 of them announced their closures under the former Coalition government, so it’s a matter of whether the rollout of renewables with solar continues in order to secure energy supply or whether we just stop that.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: Lukas Coch/AFP

Federal Liberal and Nationals MPs met virtually for a snap party room meeting on Wednesday morning to sign off on the proposal.

SEVEN COAL POWER SITES IN FRAME

Earlier, multiple Coalition sources said Victoria’s Latrobe Valley was due to be ruled out as a location, with Gippsland Nationals MP Darren Chester earlier stating he expected a detailed process would occur before sites were finalised.

“While it is premature to rule regions in or out as potential locations for a nuclear power station without a full independent analysis, there would be very few suitable sites given the known parameters around access to existing transmission lines, proximity to water, and a location close to large end users,” Mr Chester said on Facebook.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton visited the NSW south coast where he ruled out locating a nuclear power plant. Picture: Tom McGann

One source said the retiring coal-fired power station sites of Callide and Tarong in regional Queensland have been earmarked for nuclear reactors.

Despite strong support for nuclear among Queensland LNP members, several MPs have privately expressed concern that the Coalition has run out of time to properly “bring the electorate along” on the issue.

An election could be called by Labor any time from August this year to May 2025.

Following this discussion, it is understood Coalition MPs with electorates identified as the host locations for future nuclear reactors would be briefed on the plan.

The draft policy will then be taken to a full party room meeting scheduled to be held virtually at 8.30am on Wednesday.

Multiple Coalition MPs said they believed the nuclear plan would be unveiled by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton later that same day.

However a further “strategy” meeting has been floated as a possibility before the official announcement is made.

One Coalition MP said there was a strong feeling in the party room that Mr Dutton should capitalise on recent political momentum fuelled by doubts cast on Labor’s ability to achieve its target of a 43 per cent emissions cut by 2030.

However not everyone in the party room is convinced about the timing, with several MPs privately saying they felt it was a risk to announce ahead of a parliamentary sitting fortnight later this month where they would be open to government attack.

There are four coal power stations in NSW, eight in Queensland, three in Victoria and three in Western Australia, which all have potential to be the sites for reactors.

In order for this to happen, a future Coalition government would have to lift Australia’s longstanding moratorium on onshore nuclear development.

A recent CSIRO report estimated it would take until the 2040s for the first nuclear reactor to be built in Australia, which the scientific body costed at $8.5 billion though Mr Dutton has dismissed those figures.

During a visit to the NSW south coast on Tuesday, Mr Dutton ruled out locating a nuclear plant at Murrays Beach in Jervis Bay, despite the territory being previously earmarked to host a reactor before the plan was abandoned in the 1970s.

“I believe very strongly that the policy that we’re putting forward means that you can utilise the existing distribution network – that is the poles and wires that distribute the energy from the point of generation, so we’re only talking about coal fired power stations,” he said.

Nationals leader David Littleproud says nuclear power is a better option to large scale renewables requiring extensive transmission lines. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Last week, Nationals leader David Littleproud said his regional colleagues would be hosting all of the nuclear reactors.

“We will be very upfront and honest. They will be in National Party seats,” he said.

Mr Littleproud said using existing coal sites would avoid the need to build the 28,000 km of transmission lines likely needed to connect renewables to the grid.

In May Mr Littleproud revealed the Coalition had been conducting polling in areas where it expected to put “six or seven” nuclear power plants.

“We want to make sure that we’ve engaged with those communities … in the opportunities of having higher paid jobs that will actually give them those within the nuclear industry, but also opportunity for more manufacturing,” he told Sky News.

Mr Littleproud said the community response had been “very supportive” so far.

Originally published as Coalition’s Peter Dutton announces seven proposed nuclear reactor locations