Will nuclear energy help meet Australia’s future energy needs?

Experts said adding nuclear energy in the energy mix is a big risk.

Whilst the Liberal-National opposition has suggested adding nuclear power to Australia's energy mix, experts have warned that this would result in unaffordable energy costs for the country.

If this proposal is implemented, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said the median household electricity bills will rise by an average of $665 per year.

According to Johanna Bowyer, lead analyst for Australian Electricity at IEEFA, building nuclear power plants costs up to $90b. Capital costs of new nuclear power stations have even blown out by a factor of 1.7 to 3.4 times, she added.

“For nuclear power plants to be commercially viable without government subsidies and generating 24/7 - as the Coalition proposes - electricity prices would need to rise to these higher levels to allow the nuclear power plants to recover their costs. This would result in a large increase in wholesale market prices which would then flow through to household bills,” Bowyer said.

Meanwhile, Clean Energy Council Policy Director – Market, Investment and Grid Christiaan Zuur said this proposal “doesn’t make sense for meeting Australia’s future energy needs and emissions reduction commitments.”

He noted that renewables, backed up by storage and transmission, are already providing 40% of Australia’s electricity supply and more are still in the pipeline.

"Put simply, this is a high-cost, high-risk experiment that Australia cannot afford,” he said.