Dick Smith rubbishes Anthony Albanese over one of his biggest excuses for not wanting nuclear energy

Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith has dismissed Anthony Albanese’s claim that nuclear power is too expensive.

The prime minister tweeted on Wednesday that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton “doesn’t want to put a price tag on his nuclear reactor plan, but he knows it will be a big bill.”

Chris Bowen, Albania’s Climate Change Minister, cited CSIRO research in a recent press release that found nuclear power would be eight times more expensive than renewable electricity from wind and solar.

According to the CSIRO and AEMO’s GenCost 2023-24 report, building a large-scale nuclear reactor would cost $17 billion. Labor claimed that energy bills and taxes would rise to cover the increased costs.

But Mr Smith, who founded one of Australia’s first electronics retail chains, said the CSIRO and AEMO had misled the Albanian government.

“The prime minister says nuclear power is too expensive for Australia. You’ve got to be kidding,” Smith said. Sky News on Wednesday.

Mr Smith argued that renewables are the most expensive option because, to provide stable energy, they also require large batteries to store electricity.

“They need to be combined with three days of storage, not three hours as CSIRO has calculated. Batteries make them prohibitively expensive,” he said.

Mr Smith pointed out that Pakistan and Bangladesh, which he described as “very poor countries”, have both successfully used nuclear energy.

“For me, nuclear is the gold standard for baseload energy and we really need to have it,” he said.

The philanthropist and pilot argued that nuclear energy is also better for the environment because it does not require large areas of land for infrastructure.

“You can just build a five-hectare nuclear power plant, instead of destroying thousands of square kilometers.”

He said he believed Labor should reconsider its position, just as it did on the nuclear submarines needed for the Australian armed forces, which he campaigned for in 2016.

“When I put ads in The Australian for the nuclear submarines, my friends said to me, ‘Dick, Labor will never change its mind, you’re wasting your money,'” he said.

‘Then I woke up one morning and what had happened? The coalition decided on nuclear submarines and, wait a minute, Labor reversed it and supported it.

‘They turned 180 degrees because it was in the national interest.

“They’re going to have to do the same thing with nuclear energy. The longer they delay it, the worse it is for our young people.”

Mr Albanese said electricity bills and taxes would rise if nuclear energy were introduced

A newspaper advertisement by Mr Smith saying that ‘blackouts’ should be expected if Australia relies solely on wind and solar power

Mr Smith added that he is all for reducing emissions and taking action on climate change, but believes nuclear energy is a better option for this than solar and wind.

Mr Bowen recently stressed that Labor’s transition to renewable electricity is on track.

“Under Labor, the share of renewable energy in the national grid has increased by 25 per cent, there has been record investment in batteries and storage, and more than 330,000 solar panels were installed on roofs last year alone,” he said.

“Since the last election, we have approved more than 50 renewable energy projects and we are already halfway to achieving our 2030 target for renewable energy in the national grid.”

The government has pledged that the national electricity grid will consist of 82 percent solar and wind energy by 2030.