<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/18/replacing-australias-retiring-coal-power-stations-with-small-nuclear-reactors-could-cost-387bn-analysis-suggests>
"The federal government says it would cost as much as $387bn to replace
Australia’s retiring coal-fired power stations with the form of nuclear power
proposed by the Coalition.
The figure, produced by the energy department, is the projected cost of
replacing all of the output from closing coal-fired plants with small modular
reactors.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has previously suggested that Australia
“could convert or repurpose coal-fired plants and use the transmission
connections which already exist on those sites”.
However, he has not been explicit about how much of the coal-fired electricity
output would be replaced with nuclear-sourced energy – an uncertainty that
makes projecting the cost difficult.
The figure adds fuel to the growing political dispute over the pace and form of
Australia’s energy transition.
The government said the new analysis showed a minimum of 71 small modular
reactors – providing 300MW each – would be needed if the policy were to fully
replace the 21.3GW output of Australia’s retiring coal fleet.
“According to the 2022-23 GenCost report modelling under the current policies
scenario, this could cost $387bn,” a government summary said.
“This is due to the estimated capital cost of $18,167/kW for [small modular
reactors] in 2030, compared to large scale solar at just $1,058/kW, and onshore
wind at $1,989/kW.”
The government said this would represent “a whopping $25,000 cost impost on
each Australian taxpayer”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
