December 13, 2024
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal will cost Australians dearly – wasting money, time and energy we can’t afford while doing nothing to lower people’s power bills or cut climate pollution today.
Further details from the Coalition, to be released today, fail to explain the costs of keeping Australia’s coal-fired power stations open for longer, ignore Australia’s growing energy needs, underestimate the cost and time needed to build nuclear reactors, and exclude significant costs from its calculations. Locals have also expressed concerns about the risks to their communities from hosting risky reactors in the region and delaying the energy transition with no plan for new jobs and opportunities in the near term.
The below energy and economics experts are available for comment, as well as community voices from the regions earmarked to host reactors.
To arrange interviews, please contact: Sean Kennedy on 0447 121 378 or sean.kennedy@climatemediacentre.org.au
Professor John Quiggin, economist, University of Queensland
John Quiggin is prominent both as a research economist and as a commentator on national and state economic policy. He can offer expert analysis on the economic implications of nationalising our grid for nuclear reactors, the impact of spending hundreds of billions of dollars of state funds on the nuclear proposal, and how this may affect government budgets and energy prices. He can also give economic analysis of renewable energy markets and the impacts the Coalition’s nuclear proposal would have on investment and the energy industry.
Location: Brisbane
Johanna Bowyer, lead analyst, Australian Electricity at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
IEEFA has identified significant issues with the Coalition’s proposals to introduce nuclear power generation in Australia. IEEFA has been researching nuclear power since 2016 – tracking the recent overseas nuclear reactor construction projects – and IEEFA has found that the recent projects in Europe and North America have experienced significant delays and cost overruns. Johanna can explain how nuclear power is much more expensive than renewables plus storage, how nuclear reactors would take much longer to build than expected and how nuclear power would face compatibility issues in an electricity grid with a large amount of solar and wind. She can also touch on financial questions remaining unanswered including decommissioning costs, cost of nuclear waste disposal and nuclear accident liability – these questions add uncertainty to the proposal.
Location: Canberra
Professor Ian Lowe AO, Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University
Ian Lowe is a world-recognised scientist – he has been a referee for the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and the Millennium Assessment. He has published multiple books on the prospect of nuclear energy in Australia, and can give expert analysis on how the opposition's nuclear proposal stacks up against available forms of energy generation.
(Limited availability on Friday, December 13)
Location: Brisbane
LOCAL VOICES FROM PROPOSED NUCLEAR REACTOR SITES
Additional community spokespeople from these locations available on request
Tony Wolfe, former senior plant operator at one of the Loy Yang coal power stations in the Latrobe Valley with 40 years experience. Tony is a board member of Gippsland Climate Change Network and member of community advisory groups for Star of the South offshore wind farm and Delburn Wind Farm. He can talk about what an effective job transition plan for coal workers needs to look like as the industry shuts down, and why workers need government support to find jobs in renewable energy.
Location: Warragul, Victoria
Thomas Ebersoll, Lithgow Environment Group spokesperson, lives at Newnes, where he has been running holiday cabins off grid since 2001. He has been actively involved with the Lithgow community since moving to the area in 2000 and spoke on behalf of the Lithgow Environment Group at the federal parliament’s nuclear energy inquiry’s Lithgow public hearing.
Location: Newnes, NSW
Mia Pepper, campaigns director at the Conservation Council of WA. Mia Pepper is an expert in nuclear energy and uranium mining. She was formerly an Australian Conservation Foundation councillor and Mineral Policy Institute deputy chair. She has a Murdoch University master’s in environmental science.
Location: Perth
Sonya Elek is a mother of two and lives with her family in Padbury, WA. She has worked as a music teacher for more than 20 years, and volunteers with numerous climate and environmental groups, including Parents for Climate; she also works as a community organiser for the Conservation Council of WA.
Location: Perth
Trevor Woolley, former senior engineer at Bayswater power station who has lived off grid at Denman in a passive solar house for more than 30 years and drives an electric car.
Location: Denman, Upper Hunter
Justin Page, Hunter Jobs Alliance coordinator, can talk about the need to continue the energy transformation already underway in the Hunter, where industries are already on the right path to transitioning to renewable energy.
Location: Newcastle
