Peter Dutton says his nuclear power policy is “probably the biggest energy economic policy offered by an opposition in our country’s history.” So why have Dutton and Barnaby Joyce, a man not averse to spruiking, gone strangely silent on nuclear?
Maybe it’s that recent nuclear projects around the world have been plagued by massive cost blowouts and delays. Or maybe it’s that most experts say electricity produced from nuclear is more expensive than renewables. Possibly it’s because it’s actually illegal to whack up nuclear power stations at their proposed sites?
It could be that the Coalition has no idea where it would source the massive volumes of water needed for nuclear facilities. Maybe they don’t know how to store deadly radioactive waste or how to address nuclear’s real health and safety risks.
But the real explanation is that nuclear is not the “the biggest energy economic policy offered by an opposition in our country’s history”. It’s simply the biggest con job.