Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the idea of rolling out nuclear power in Australia is a distraction from climate action at a press conference on NSW’s Central Coast.
“It’s never stacked up, which is why it never goes anywhere,” Albanese said about the Coalition’s push for nuclear power, amid interjections from climate protesters criticising the rollout of new coal and gas projects.
Power lines came down in the You Yangs, south-west of Melbourne, following wild wind gusts.Credit: Jason South
“What will make a difference on climate change is investing in the best and cheapest form of new energy. That energy is renewables,” the prime minister added.
“The way forward for nuclear energy needs two things. It needs investment here, and there’s no one coming forward.
“And it needs some local members putting their hand up in the National Party and Liberal Party and saying ‘I want a nuclear power plant in my electorate’, which has to be near the water, has to be near populations as well in order for them to have any credibility.”
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Earlier this week, Nationals leader David Littleproud argued the collapse of transmission towers carrying power from Loy Yang in south-eastern Victoria underscored the vulnerability of Labor’s plan to replace the nation’s ageing coal power stations with renewable power generation.
“If small-scale nuclear power plants were built where retiring coal-fired power stations are now, we could minimise the need for new transmission lines, reducing the risk of these incidents,” Littleproud said.
But if Loy Yang had been producing nuclear power on Tuesday, wrote Nick O’Malley, the grid would still have been threatened by a storm that took down transmission lines to it.
Source Agencies
