<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/is-it-a-cost-of-living-election-or-a-nuclear-power-election-peter-dutton-cant-have-it-both-ways/>
"The 2025 federal election is still some months away, but the unofficial
campaign is off and racing, with the prime minister and the leader of the
federal opposition both traversing the country this week to court votes on the
issue of the day – cost of living.
The cost of energy – to business, industry and households – will be central to
this and Peter Dutton, for his part, is betting the Coalition’s fortunes on a
plan to introduce nuclear power into Australia’s mix for the first time in its
history, in the midst of a market well on the way to 82 per cent renewables by
2030.
Dutton’s claim, based on much criticised modelling by Frontier Economics, is
that his party’s nuclear plan will deliver power bills 44% cheaper than they
would be under Labor’s plan for renewables.
There is plenty of highly credible research to skewer this claim, not least of
all the latest draft
GenCost report from Australia’s premier science agency,
which finds integrated renewables are by far the lowest cost option for
Australia as it seeks to quit fossil fuels.
But some of the best evidence that nuclear power is anything but cheap comes
from the real-world experience of recent projects in other countries –
countries with an existing nuclear fleet – where plant development or
refurbishment costs just keep blowing out.
Unfortunately for Peter Dutton, a fresh example of this phenomenon has cropped
up just this week, from the UK and Sizewell C nuclear power station planned for
construction in Suffolk.
Reports emerged on Tuesday in the
Financial Times that the final price tag
for the Sizewell C project, which is being developed by French giant EDF, is
likely to reach close to £40 billion – nearly double the original estimate of
£26 billion.
The £40 billion figure, attributed to “one senior government figure and two
well-placed industry sources” has since been rejected by EDF as “not accurate,”
although the company declined to put its own figure on the likely cost."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
