Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s estimate that it would cost $387 billion to replace existing coal-fired power stations with small modular reactors (SMRs) is unlikely to quieten the advocates of “having a debate” over nuclear.
Indeed The Australian’s editorialist fired straight back, comparing this estimate with a suggested cost of $1.5 trillion to decarbonise the economy by 2050. The fact that the second estimate includes replacement, not just of coal-fired power stations but of all uses of gas and oil (electricity, transport, heating and industry), seems to have escaped the writer.
Nuclear industry has gone nowhere in the past 20 years, with old plants closing as fast as new ones opened.
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