Dick Smith has criticized the CSIRO for suggesting nuclear power would be twice as expensive as unproven renewable energy, accusing it of promoting Labor Party policies ahead of the election.
The federal government’s science and research body on Monday released a GenCost report suggesting establishing a nuclear energy industry in Australia would take at least 15 years; Despite the evidence abroad, it can be done much sooner.
“Nuclear energy does not currently provide the most cost-competitive solution for low-emission electricity in Australia,” he said.
But Smith, a businessman who campaigns for nuclear energy, said the CSIRO report simply reflected the political views of Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Science Minister Ed Husic.
“I think their figures are wrong,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“They are all employed by a government, by a minister who is opposed to nuclear power, so you won’t have much of a career in the CSIRO if you say your minister in the government is wrong and the government is totally opposed.” to the nuclear.’
A CSIRO spokeswoman said its analysis was “highly collaborative” and based on “the best information available globally, applied to the Australian context, in consultation with a range of industries and broader stakeholders”.
Dick Smith has criticized the CSIRO for suggesting nuclear power would be twice as expensive, accusing it of promoting Labor Party policies ahead of the election (pictured left with wife Pip).
While both sides of politics favor a net-zero climate change target by 2050, opposition leader Peter Dutton will go into the next election with a plan to build seven nuclear reactors, while the Labor Party promises that Renewable energy will provide 100 per cent of Australia’s electricity in no time. more than two decades.
Dutton agreed with Mr Smith and said the report had the “heavy hand” of Chris Bowen.
‘They were discussed before, and you know what? They haven’t even seen our plan yet and yet they are implementing it.
“I think it’s important to note this: in Ontario, where nuclear power makes up 60 per cent of the energy mix, people pay 18 cents per kilowatt hour, in South Australia, right now, people pay 56 cents per kilowatt hour time,” he said. explained.
“In Tennessee, with over 44 percent nuclear in the mix, still with renewables, they’re paying 18 cents per kilowatt hour.”
However, the The GenCost report from CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator argued that renewable energy had the lowest cost range for the seventh year in a row and said annual battery storage costs had fallen by 20 per cent.
The report also argues that nuclear power would take 15 years to establish in Australia, despite the United Arab Emirates doing so in eight years with a new plant in Barakah in 2020, built with South Korean technology.
“There is some statistical evidence of the impact of the degree of democracy on nuclear energy delivery times,” he said.
The report by CSIRO chief energy policy economist Paul Graham also argued that while nuclear reactors typically lasted longer than photovoltaic solar and wind farms, renewable energy generation was cheaper to replace.
He predicted that by 2030, nuclear power could be generated on a larger scale at a cost of between $150 and $245 per megawatt hour, compared to $121 to $164 for solar and $67 to $137 for solar and wind. .
Nuclear power from small modular reactors, or SMRs, would cost between $285 and $487 an hour, the report states.
The report also argues that nuclear power would take 15 years to establish in Australia, despite the United Arab Emirates doing so in eight years with a new plant in Barakah (pictured) in 2020, built with South Korean technology.
“There are no unique cost advantages derived from the long operational life of nuclear technology,” he said.
‘Similar cost savings can be achieved with shorter-lived technologies, even taking into account the fact that shorter-lived technologies must be built twice.
“This is because shorter-lived technologies, such as solar PV and wind, typically become available at a lower cost over time, making second builds less expensive.”
But Smith responded by saying battery storage technology was still inefficient, meaning renewable energy would only work if there was backup energy storage using pumped hydraulics to achieve zero carbon emissions.
He paid $6,000 for an advertisement in Monday’s edition of The Sydney Morning Herald arguing that renewable energy would be prohibitively expensive because it would require the construction of 50 pumped hydroelectric systems to have zero carbon emissions.
The businessman argued that solar and wind energy were dependent on a volatile climate and therefore would not be able to meet 98 per cent of Australia’s energy needs by 2040, according to the government’s target.
In his announcement, he quoted Griffith University emeritus professor of environmental sciences Ian Lowe and asked the climate change minister where the pumped hydro would go.
‘Mr Bowen, where will the 50 pumped hydro plants and 100 dams be located to allow intermittent wind and solar farms to provide reliable electricity?’
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, an opponent of nuclear power at odds with Dutton, announced in 2017 that his government would begin work on Snowy Hydo 2.0 in southern New South Wales.
But last year pumped hydro project costs soared to $12 billion, and the ad asked about the price of damming 100 rivers and valleys to create 50 pumped hydro projects.
Smith argued that it would not be possible for renewable energy to provide almost all of Australia’s power within 15 years, without environmentally destructive dams being built to accommodate pumped hydro projects.
“With renewable energy it will be necessary to have those dams because battery storage is too expensive,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘If we are not going to have nuclear power, I think we will have to have 50 pumped storage systems with a hundred dams.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who is eyeing sites in seven regional centres, has pledged to publish the coalition’s nuclear costs “this week”.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has committed to building two small modular reactors by 2035.
“That means nothing can grow; then the most incredible erosion occurs because there is no longer any vegetation because it all dies being underwater half the time.”
Smith argued that droughts would also compromise the reliability of pumped hydropower, arguing that existing battery storage technology would be insufficient to cope with lack of sun or wind droughts that hampered the reliability of solar and wind power.
“Someone is going to realize that we have droughts,” he said.
“There could be a terrible drought on the East Coast and end up with water evaporating.”
Smith predicted that the ALP at federal and state level would support nuclear power, arguing that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese now supported nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS agreement.
“I think the Labor Party will come to our side. “I am absolutely sure they will do it, just as they sided with nuclear submarines,” said Mr Smith.
“In the end it will be identical to nuclear energy: it is the only way forward.”
The Labor state governments of New South Wales and Victoria have laws blocking nuclear power, but Smith predicts they will end up legislating to repeal these bans when they realize that renewable energy is unreliable.
“They will be convinced because there is simply no alternative,” Mr Smith said.
‘We will have blackouts: you cannot govern a country with intermittent solar and wind energy; It’s impossible.
‘I understand that every state has a ban on nuclear power, and we also have a federal ban on nuclear power, so those bans will have to be lifted.
‘We are one of the biggest sellers of uranium in the world, but we have legislation that says you can’t even consider that and that is completely ridiculous.
“We will have to change the legislation in each state and federally.”