The biggest generator of coal power in Australia, AGL Energy, has again – and emphatically – rejected nuclear as an option for the replacement of its remaining coal plants.
The comments from AGL come as the federal Coalition, nuclear ideologues and the conservative media ramp up their campaigns against renewables and for nuclear, with Coalition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien calling for coal closures to be delayed and replaced on the same site by small modular reactors.
The argument against nuclear in Australia is essentially one of costs, and timeliness. Even the most ardent admirers of the technology, such as former chief scientist Alan Finkel, say it is too expensive, and too slow.
Like Finkel, they note that the SMR technology doesn’t exist for commercial application, and that the first pilot plants are unlikely to be operating before the end of the decade, if then. If climate targets are to be reached, renewables and storage must be deployed to slash emissions by then.
The Australia energy industry shakes its head at the campaign for nuclear, but it is starting to get a head of steam, underlined by blanket support and coverage in the Murdoch media, the undermining of renewables and an extraordinary campaign of misinformation on social and even mainstream media.
When AGL closed its ageing and increasingly decrepit Liddell power station in NSW in April, CEO Damien Nicks laughed off calls by the Coalition to keep the station open and replace it with SMRs.
