The Shadow Minister for Energy Dr Steve Thomas says the Federal Opposition’s plan for nuclear energy detailed today gives an opportunity for a more in depth debate in the community and detailed discussions with their state colleagues.
“It is good to see greater clarity in their plans, but there is still a long way to go before nuclear energy would be pumping electrons into any grid, especially in Western Australia” Dr Thomas said.
“In the first instance this announcement clears one of the critical hurdles I have previously identified – that of meeting a proper business case for Western Australia.
“In announcing that the Commonwealth would own any nuclear stations, Peter Dutton has accepted all of the cost risk on to a Coalition Federal Government, so from a WA State perspective there is no capital cost risk.
“The other risk is that a federally owned nuclear power station would need to sell much of its energy to the State trading enterprise Synergy, because in our isolated system Synergy has a monopoly over most of the market. The Commonwealth would simply be another supplier to the market and would need to compete with everyone else.
“The federal announcement says there will be two “establishment projects” built by the mid 2030’s in the first instance, which look to me like plants to test the effectiveness of the proposal” Dr Thomas said.
“It makes obvious sense to me that the first two plants would be built in the National Energy Market (NEM) in the eastern states, where the power grid is both much larger and much further in crisis.
“This is supported by the fact that the larger nuclear units are currently much more economically viable, and while the NEM could absorb that higher generation, our Western Australian energy market place could not.
“Given the impending disaster of the energy system in Victoria after a decade of mismanagement, that might well be the best place to start.
I have repeatedly said I am not frightened of nuclear energy, but it has to stack up economically and there has to be community acceptance.
“In my view my federal colleagues, having absorbed the first part, will have a decade or two in this state to deliver the second before we will see it here” Dr Thomas said.
“It will be an interesting debate.”
