Nuclear power incompatible with Australia's renewable rollout: Energy Minister

A proposal to build nuclear reactors in Australia is incompatible with the country's rollout of renewable energy, the country's energy minister has said.

In a speech to the National Press Club (NPC) in Canberra on Wednesday, Chris Bowen - the Minister for Climate Change and Energy - said Australians will have to make a choice between "reliable" renewables and "risky" nuclear reactors at the next general election, which must be held by May 2025, Xinhua news agency reported.

It was Bowen's first major speech since Peter Dutton, leader of the opposition coalition, in June revealed a plan to repeal Australia's ban on nuclear power and build seven nuclear power plants at sites of retiring coal-fired power stations around Australia by 2050 if he is elected prime minister.

Bowen said on Wednesday that nuclear power in Australia is not a viable economic option and would put private investment in the renewables rollout at risk. 

The governing Labor Party has committed to a target of 82 per cent of Australia's electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030.

"Their ideological pursuit of nuclear reactors in two decades' time would wreck the renewables rollout now," Bowen said. "We don't have the luxury of delaying investment in new generation for another 15 or 20 years while we wait for a new form of generation that Australia has never had."

Under Dutton's plan, the first two nuclear reactors would be operational between 2035 and 2037.

An expert report published by national science agency the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) in May found that the earliest operation date would be 2040 for a small reactor and years later for a large-scale reactor.

The same report found that a large-scale nuclear reactor would generate electricity at more than twice the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology.