Australia’s big private electricity generators have dismissed nuclear energy as a viable source of power for their customers for at least a decade.
They say they will remain focused on developing renewable sources as coal and gas plants exit the grid.
The comments – from AGL Energy, Alinta, EnergyAustralia and Origin Energy – follow an announcement by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, that the Coalition would back both large-scale and small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) as a way to cut electricity prices and increase grid reliability.
Energy Australia, whose Hong Kong-listed owner CLP currently operates two large nuclear power stations in mainland China, said the company was “committed to Australia’s clean energy transformation, reducing emissions as quickly and affordably as possible while maintaining system reliability”.
“We know that Australia will need some form of controllable long-duration, zero-carbon storage or generation to deliver net zero by 2050,” an EA spokesperson said, adding that green hydrogen or nuclear had potential to play a role.
“Given long lead times for development, [nuclear is] a potential option for the late 2030s or 2040s.”
Alinta said it had not been approached by the Coalition and nuclear energy was “not something we’re exploring”.
“To be a viable option, the regulatory environment would need to be amended and many other considerations would need to be assessed,” the Alinta spokesperson said.
Damien Nicks, AGL’s chief, said nuclear energy was not a part of the company’s plans to develop coal and gas plants into low-emissions industrial hubs.
“There is no viable schedule for the regulation or development of nuclear energy in Australia and the cost, build time and public opinion are all prohibitive,” Nicks said on Friday. “Policy certainty is important for companies like AGL and ongoing debate on the matter runs the risk of unnecessarily complicating the long-term investment decisions necessary for the energy transition.”
An Origin spokesperson said the company was focused on accelerating the take-up of renewables and storage, including the construction of big batteries at its Eraring coal-fired power plant in New South Wales and at its Mortlake gas-fired plant in Victoria.
“At this stage, our primary focus is adding more supply from these mature low-emissions technologies, however we will continue to watch progress with any emerging technologies that may be able to contribute to emissions reduction over time,” the spokesperson said.
Australia’s electricity prices have jumped in recent years, including a hike in the default market offer in 2022 that the Morrison government delayed until after the election that year – lumping Labor with the increase.
The slow rollout of wind and solar farms, however, has stoked concerns the electricity sector won’t have sufficient capacity to meet demand as ageing coal plants shut.
While companies stress they remain “energy agnostic”, the challenges of introducing a new energy source requiring complex regulations, particularly for the storage and disposal of nuclear energy waste, are steep, they say. They point to the absence of commercially proven SMRs and cost blowouts of large-scale plants such as the UK’s Hinkley Point C, which has been touted as the world’s “most expensive” power station.
Guardian Australia sought comment from Ted O’Brien, the opposition’s energy spokesperson. “If you’re not serious about nuclear, you’re not serious about net zero,” O’Brien said last December. “We’re open to all technologies from renewables to carbon, capture and storage, zero-emissions nuclear energy, and so much more.”
One senior executive told Guardian Australia power bills would triple if the nuclear path was pursued.
NSW’s chief scientist, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, dismissed the comparisons by nuclear energy advocates of places such as Ontario, Canada. That country had spent decades building a nuclear industry employing 70,000 people.
“Nobody in this country has even the faintest idea how to build a nuclear power plant,” Durrant-Whyte, a former nuclear adviser to the UK government, told NSW upper house estimates earlier this month.
