"Peter Dutton has called a press conference for 10am, so it is all official – nuclear is go.
The Coalition teleconference meeting has wrapped up, and the seven sites have been named and it is as we thought: Collie in Western Australia, Mt Piper and Liddell in New South Wales, Callide and Tarong in Queensland, Northern Energy in South Australia and Loy Yang in Victoria."
"There are already issues being identified with the sites – first, the sites would need to be purchased from private operators. There will need to be some pretty major changes to legislation, both state and federally. The Queensland LNP, as recently as yesterday, said it would not lift the nuclear ban for the state, which is a problem given two Queensland reactor sites have been identified by Dutton’s team.
Tarong in Queensland is a particular issue as it doesn’t have a secure water source. In 2006, then-premier Peter Beattie had to propose a waste water pipeline as a last ditch measure to save the plant during a drought."
Nuclear is dead, my friend. I’d encourage you to take look at the cost curves of solar, wind and storage. They have come down an absolutely insane amount over the last decade and are predicted to come down another insane amount over the next half decade or so (about when your first reactor might be able to come online).
Just to give you an idea we’re talking about around a 90% cost reduction for both solar and batteries and something like 45% for wind. It’s crazy, but it’s already happened. If you’re interested I’d suggest taking a look at RethinkX’s work. It’s lead by Tony Seba who predicted these cost declines already back in 2010. Doesn’t guarantee that he’s right, but it is looking like the trend is going to continue.
There are also pretty profound implications for a 100% solar, wind and storage system as well that are pretty incredible. I don’t think anything else makes sense in comparison.
EDIT: Here’s a direct link to the report if you’re interested in reading it.