A rare meeting of the minds! I agree 100%, the FTC is not a subsidy, no matter how hard Australia Institute pushes that barrow.
You know I actually also think it's great that renewables are growing, and they most certainly have their place in the energy mix. They should be providing the majority of electricity. My argument is that nuclear should form a minority portion of that mix also, or at the very least, the ban should be lifted & comparable subsidies to renewables put in place.
Re SMR's, keep an eye on Darlington in Canada. The CNSC held it's final hearings in January and is expected to issue the construction license for the BWRX-300 shortly. Construction will kick off soon after, as supply chains are ready to go and site works is well underway.
The BWRX-300 & AP300 are also on the short list for British SMR projects in the pipeline. Plans are for multiple sites to host multiple SMR's, same as Darlington. The design winner to be selected in the coming months.
The next couple of years is going to provide a lot of information re these SMR designs, including whether the modular designs do actually help keep costs and construction times in check.
I mention SMR's because, if they do become competitive, it's the kind of design a power hungry industry in Australia could support via electricity off-take in the same way RIO has done in your example.
