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Going nuclear: Dutton to lay out detail on power plan

Dutton on nuclear costs (file)

Source: ABC News Breakfast

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is expected to reveal further details on the Coalition’s plans for a nuclear energy-powered Australia in a major speech.

In an address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Monday, Dutton will lay out how the Coalition’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors across five states would work

However, the cost of building the reactors is not expected to be part of Monday’s details.

The Coalition outlined in June plans to build reactors in the Hunter Valley and Lithgow in NSW, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Callide and Tarong in Queensland, Port Augusta in South Australia and Collie in Western Australia, should it win the next election.

Should the proposal go ahead, it would be 10 to 12 years before the first reactor is built, before the remainder are constructed from the 2040s.

Dutton has previously said nuclear would become part of Australia’s overall energy mix, along with renewables, under a Coalition government.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the Coalition would reveal the costs of the nuclear policy before the election.

“[The speech] will outline our energy policy in totality, around what our mix will be, and that’s about not putting all our energy into one basket,” he told Sky News.

“We’ve taken a very mature approach to this; we’ve said that there’ll be seven locations across the country that will transition those coal-fired power stations to nuclear power plants.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Coalition proposal would not solve energy issues in Australia.

“Peter Dutton’s nuclear fantasy is economic insanity. It costs more, it will push power prices up, it will take longer,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

“He needs to come clean … in this speech: what will it cost, what will it mean for power bills, how will he pay for it, and what will Australia do for the decades it will take to build these reactors.”

-AAP

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