'Game-changer': Expert weighs in on Coalition's energy plan

ANSTO former CEO Adrian Paterson discusses the potential for developing a nuclear industry in Australia, emphasising its reliability and cost-effectiveness compared to renewable energy.

Mr Paterson noted that the Coalition's proposed nuclear policy is a "game-changer" and provides a realistic plan for developing a nuclear industry in Australia.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced details of his ambitions for Australia’s energy future, including 38 per cent of the nation’s power to come from nuclear energy by 2050.

According to an analysis by Frontier Economics, the cost of the Opposition’s nuclear plan will be $331 billion compared to Labor’s $595 billion renewables-only policy.

“It's very different, I think, to the types of plans that we're seeing that are coming in particular around the renewables that we're seeing running all over the country … it contextualised the fact that 100 per cent renewables, is not being done anywhere else in the world,” Mr Paterson told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.

“So we're trying to do something that's really difficult and impossible. But in fact, with the reactors that are proposed, they're going into sites where there already are power plants. We'll be keeping coal, but we will be adding nuclear.

“And in fact, the long term is that we'll have lower carbon. But the most important thing for the average electricity user is that the price will come down over time as we build the nuclear. We will have a shorter grid and we'll have more reliable electricity because the cost won't go into building a big new grid.”