Will Australia Require Nuclear Energy to Achieve Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050?

Will Australia Require Nuclear Energy to Achieve Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050?

The question of whether Australia can have a reliable baseload power network in the future without nuclear power with ageing coal fired power stations being retired is one of the most pressing current issues. Answering this question is the purpose of writing this article. The number one National Science and Research priority is ‘transitioning to a net zero future’, while the number four priority is ‘protecting and restoring Australia’s environment’. This topic falls squarely within these two national priorities. The current debate is largely political with the two main political parties taking diametrically opposed positions based on political ideology. The renewable energy industry trumpets solar and wind power, and points to the length of time it takes to build a nuclear power station, while organisations like the Minerals Council of Australia argue Australia is short-changing itself by not allowing nuclear power and pointing to Canada’s nuclear industry as an example to follow. However, there is little written about the subject outside of CSIRO’s annual GenCost report on the costs of different generation technologies and two reports written by Frontier Economics assessing the relative costs of nuclear power in the National Energy Market (NEM). The GenCost 2023-24 report concluded nuclear would be at least 50% more expensive than solar and wind and would not be available any earlier than 2040, while Frontier Economics estimated that the inclusion of nuclear power in the NEM in the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) preferred Step Change scenario is 25% cheaper than AEMO’s renewables and storage approach. This article objectively examines whether Australia will require nuclear energy to achieve carbon zero emissions by 2050.

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