South Australia's premier has comprehensively rejected the future use of nuclear power generators in Australia, saying the "completely uneconomic" technology had already been thoroughly investigated and dismissed.
In an interview with ABC's 7.30, Peter Malinauskas recast comments he made earlier in the week in a News Corp interview, that were widely interpreted as pro-nuclear energy and were labelled a mistake by the Prime Minister.
"I didn't seek to suggest that nuclear power should be part of the mix in our nation," the South Australian premier told ABC's 7.30 host, Sarah Ferguson.
"I think we should acknowledge that nuclear power would make energy more expensive in our nation and [we should] put it to one side, rather than having a culture war debate around nuclear power."
In his earlier remarks, Mr Malinauskas reportedly said he "always thought the ideological opposition that exists in some quarters to nuclear power is ill-founded". He said people should be "open-minded" about the technology.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded by telling an Adelaide radio station he had a "great deal of respect for Mali, but everyone's entitled to get one or two things wrong".
However, in his ABC's 7.30 interview, the South Australian premier said his only intention had been to say the nuclear power debate should be contested solely on the evidence.
"I was simply saying: 'We've got people who are advocating that position without any reference to what the implications would be of the price on energy in our nation at the moment'. And that strikes me as being rather foolhardy," he explained.
He said he had spoken with the Prime Minister on Monday evening and said they were in "furious agreement" on nuclear energy.
Gas, coal price caps 'worthy of consideration'
State and territory leaders will meet with Mr Albanese at national cabinet on Friday.
The federal government is planning an intervention in the energy market and is understood to be considering price caps on gas and coal.
Mr Malinauskas said the idea was "worthy of consideration".
However, he said, the exact design of the policy would be "very important indeed" to strike a balance that brought prices down without sending "unnecessary signals" to investors.
Watch ABC's 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7.30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV.
