Doomed Dutton’s latest blunder: nuclear energy.
Australia’s growing energy demands could be met cost-effectively by building small nuclear reactors on the site of ageing coal-fired power plants and using transmission systems already in place, Peter Dutton says.
The Opposition Leader will accuse federal Labor of being “mesmerised” by the glare of solar panels and wind turbines, and failing to seriously consider the opportunities of nuclear power, including to lower household energy bills, in a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs think tank on Friday.
Polling for nuclear power in Australia is pretty supportive these days. But what nobody asks is whether you would support it in your backyard.
Has Doomed looked at where those coal power plants are?
North of Sydney. East of Melbourne. West of Brisbane. East of Perth.
All are barely outside of the blast radius let alone fallout zones.
This is a big problem for the Doomed nuclear strategy. Not to mention:
- nobody has yet commercialised small reactors;
- they are more expensive than any other form of clean power, especially when we include the price of transmission from where they will really need to be built;
- the LNP did not do it for ten years in government.
More:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will tell the Institute of Public Affairs that we should embrace nuclear because it’ll reduce our reliance on China, which has a monopoly on solar panels and EV components.
Err…is it easier to start a nuclear power industry than to produce a few solar panels?
I guess Doomed has to keep making these contrarian calls to survive but he’d be better off going with those that Australians love like:
- cutting immigration to take pressure off housing, wages and infrastructure;
- slashing the budget to reduce inflation, and
- restoring productivity via tax and competition reform.
You know, lifting living standards instead of opening new fronts in the culture wars.
