Coalition’s nuclear plan will add $665 a year to average power bill, report warns

Nuclear is ‘often mistakenly’ perceived to be cost-effective because it is widespread, but most plants in the west are based on projected costs and timeframes that turn out to be ‘horrible underestimates’, Ieefa says. Photograph: Mike Stewart/AP

The Coalition’s plan for seven nuclear power plants would lift power bills for average households by $665 a year based on estimated costs of six overseas nuclear projects, according to an Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report.

The Ieefa findings built on the CSIRO’s GenCost studies that have shown nuclear energy to be the most expensive form of new power generation. It assessed recent construction costs at plants in the US, UK, Finland and France, and two proposed plants – one in the Czech Republic and an abandoned small modular reactor in the US.