Nuclear power will take too long to implement and increase energy costs, a government climate change leader says, accusing advocates of delaying the transition to renewables.
The federal opposition has promised to build nuclear reactors at the sites of coal-fired power stations if it wins the next election, though it has not yet revealed the costs.
Climate Change Authority chair and former NSW Liberal treasurer Matt Kean has lashed his ex-colleagues' policy and says Australia cannot pander to vested interests and self-serving groups who "want to delay clean and cheap energy seemingly to benefit their own careers or profits at the expense of the environment, economy and people".
"The 'delay-mongers' have latched onto nuclear power despite the overwhelming evidence that it can only drive up energy bills, can only be more expensive and can only take too long to build," he said in an address at the Australian Financial Review's Climate and Energy Summit on Tuesday.
"Even those arguing for nuclear don't believe we'll ever build one of these reactors in Australia ... but they get their grabs in the news."
Under the coalition's proposal, would be built in Lithgow and the Hunter Valley in NSW, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Port Augusta in South Australia, Collie in Western Australia and Callide and Tarong in Queensland.
Speaking at the same event, opposition energy spokesman Ted O'Brien defended his party's nuclear plan and maintained it would work as part of an energy mix with renewables and gas.
"Our plan is to replace coal ... with zero-emissions nuclear energy, bringing Australia in line with the world's most advanced economies," he said.
The first reactor would be built within 10 to 12 years, with the remainder to be operational from the 2040s if the coalition wins government in 2025.
But the biggest cost of nuclear energy is time, Mr Kean said, and that is something neither the environment nor the economy can afford.
"It would once again plunge Australia back into indecision and delay," he said.
"We simply can't afford to wait and hope that bigger breakthroughs are over the horizon."
