Peter Dutton FINALLY reveals costings of nuclear energy plan – and why he expects ‘massive savings’ for your power bill

Coal- and gas-fired power plants will stay open longer under the coalition’s $330 billion nuclear transition plan.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has pledged to build seven state-owned nuclear power stations across the country. The first are predicted to come online in the mid-2030s – a timeline rejected by some experts.

“This is a plan that will underpin our country’s economic success for the next century,” he told reporters on Friday.

Renewables would make up just over half of Australia’s energy grid by 2050, with nuclear accounting for just under 40 percent and the remainder being a combination of storage and gas. Fragments of the plan had been scrapped before its release.

Labor’s plan is to strengthen the electricity grid with 82 renewable energy sources by 2030, reaching 98 percent by 2040.

Both sides of politics support a net zero target by 2050, but the coalition sees a bigger role for gas leading to that plan to make Australia carbon neutral.

Dutton was confident Labor would support the coalition’s policies if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lost the election next year.

“We have the situation here where I think it will be post-Anthony Albanese leadership – which I don’t think is too far away – in that scenario I think there could be a bipartisan position with regard to the vision that we the Australian people today,” he said.

The Coalition’s plan was modeled by Frontier Economics, which cost Labor’s transition more than $600 billion, compared to $331 billion for the Coalition’s nuclear plan – a difference of $264 billion.

“This means lower energy bills for households, lower operating costs for small businesses and a stronger, more resilient economy,” the Opposition Leader said.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has rejected this figure and said the government’s renewable energy plan would cost $122 billion, citing a forecast from the National Energy Network Operator.

“They’re making it up as they go along,” Bowen told ABC TV on Friday about the coalition’s costs.

Mr Bowen said preliminary reports on the Coalition’s plan ahead of Friday’s full announcement that nuclear power would require fewer transmission lines – bringing down estimated costs – were incorrect.

The coalition’s proposal favors nuclear reactors across the country

“I’m not sure how they’re going to get the nuclear power onto the grid, maybe via carrier pigeon if they want to argue that somehow you’re going to need less transmission,” he said.

“They’ve had to make some very heroic assumptions here and they’ve had to stretch the truth quite a bit to try to get to some very unreliable numbers.”

Keeping coal-fired power stations open beyond their useful life threatened the reliability of energy supplies, with outages and breakdowns occurring daily, Mr Bowen said.

“Keeping aging coal-fired power plants on the grid longer is a recipe for power outages,” he said.

The coalition is pushing for an end to Australia’s nuclear weapons ban, but is facing opposition from states.