For their costings on nuclear the CSIRO relied mainly on...

For their costings on nuclear the CSIRO relied mainly on evidence from Korea, one of the few developed countries tomaintain a nuclear construction program. Adjusting for the costs of starting from scratch, CSIRO has come up with anestimated construction cost for a 1000 MW nuclear plant of at least $A8.6 billion,

leading to an estimated Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) of between $163/MWh-$264/MWh, for large-scale nuclear.

In 2020, the Czech govenment’s winning bid for each of their 1000MW reactors was A$12.8 billion

For its population size, Australia would need to exceed the highest nuclear build rates ever achieved. Under the coalition’s plans Australia’s nuclear would only achieve 12% of generation capacity by 2050.

Because we have no nuclear power regulatory framework, that would have to be established and developed before any negotiated purchases or construction could begin. In addition we don’t have trained personnel in nuclear and that would take a minimum of a decade. The plan also includes SMRs yet none are commercially available. All recent nuclear plants have exceeded budgets and overrun timelines. For these reasons, it is doubtful whether the plan could deliver by 2050.

To suggest nuclear could qualify for Renewable Energy Certificates is an impossibility as it’s not a renewable resource, it’s finite.