Will a nuclear future be good for Australia?

With the federal election almost upon us, Australians will be soon deciding the nation’s energy future. It’s a choice that could mean a radical departure from the current transition to renewable energy, with a potential Coalition government planning to implement nuclear power supported by renewables and gas — promising up to 14 GW of nuclear energy by 2050.

Climate tech founder Jack Curtis has a strong background in the global nuclear market, having managed nuclear transactions relating to the storage of nuclear waste following use — including work for EnergySolutions, which at the time held the only commercial licence to store nuclear waste in America. He was also involved in the implementation of Japan’s renewable energy program following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor incident in 2011.

Now COO of Australian climate tech company Neara, Curtis believes it’s too late in the day for Australia to go down the nuclear path.

“While nuclear might have been a solution to our 2030 and 2050 targets if introduced 20 years ago, we must continue supporting the current strategy by addressing network capacity issues and removing bottlenecks,” he said.

“With the runway to 2030 increasingly tight and Australia’s energy systems already under pressure as fossil fuel plants struggle to manage the demands of a modern population, nuclear presents a difficult pathway to achieving long-term energy reliability and resilience.

“The timeline is simply too short to meet Australia’s current energy ambitions.”

Curtis pointed out that, in order to get nuclear up and running, the physical construction process alone would take more than a decade, placing us well past our 2030 timeline. Social licensing constraints would also likely take years to overcome, he said, especially considering the way community pushback and negotiation on transmission lines and renewable energy projects are still impacting the speed of the renewable energy rollout.

“Nuclear will take a minimum of 20 years to have an impact, and with Australians already worried about their energy bills, our political focus must be centred on providing stable, reliable energy access,” Curtis emphasised.

“Consumers don’t want to see change in the form of major policy upheaval, but change that addresses their concerns, including grid strain, summer blackouts, extreme weather and cost.

“The industry needs to work as a collective, with the public and private sectors collaborating to deploy new solutions that mitigate risk rather than escalate it.”

Neara COO Jack Curtis.

Top image credit: iStock.com/MartinLisner