Spectator: Aussie Opposition Leader’s Call for Nuclear to Backup Renewables is Wrong

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Why not just build nuclear and ditch the renewables? Or better still, stick to cheap coal?

Why Dutton needs coal not renewables or nuclear

Alan Moran

Yesterday, Opposition leader Peter Dutton called for Australia to embrace nuclear power to secure a clean, cost-effective, consistent electricity supply. 

Dutton is right to be concerned that the government’s policy of replacing coal-fired plants with renewables will end in a disastrous shortage of power. 

Dutton’s proposal is to replace coal-fired plants with small modular reactors that are on the drawing board in the US, UK, and elsewhere.

By locating the new nuclear reactors in existing coal-fired plants, they can tap into existing transmission lines. …Dutton’s plan has other problems. 

He envisages using small modular reactors as a backup for a system dominated by intermittent wind and solar power but nuclear power, like coal, with its high capital costs and low operating costs, is not well suited to that ancillary role.  

…Read more: https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/07/why-dutton-needs-coal-not-renewables-or-nuclear/

What can I say? Can anyone imagine former Aussie Prime Minister and climate skeptic Tony Abbott proposing such a daft scheme? Is this really the Aussie opposition party’s idea of a vote winning energy policy?

Can you imagine someone this weak having to deal with a real crisis? If someone invaded Australia, would he need to conduct an opinion poll before deciding whether to send soldiers to repel the invaders?

If Dutton is so scared of standing up to the greens in his own party ranks, that he makes a fool of himself, inserting a superfluous role for renewables in a nuclear energy policy scenario, who will he be prepared to stand up to?

Grow a pair Peter Dutton – nobody is going to vote for a weak leader who tries to please everyone. Much as I detest the Albanese government, even proposing such a ridiculous policy is proof your party is not ready or fit to govern.

Update (EW): Dutton’s full speech