Australian opposition puts nation’s first nuclear power plants in its energy plan ahead of elections

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s main opposition party on Wednesday announced plans to build Australia’s first nuclear power plants as early as 2035, arguing the government’s policies for decarbonizing the economy with renewable energy sources including solar, wind turbines and green hydrogen would not work.

The policy announcement ensures the major parties will be divided on how Australia curbs its greenhouse gas emissions at elections due within a year. The parties haven’t gone to an election with the same carbon reduction policies since 2007.

“I’m very happy for the election to be a referendum on energy, on nuclear, on power prices, on lights going out, on who has a sustainable pathway for our country going forward,” opposition leader Peter Dutton told reporters.

Seven government-owned reactors would be built on the sites of aging coal-fired electricity plants in five of Australia’s six states, Dutton said. The first two would be built from 2035-to-2037 and the last in the 2040s. The estimated costs would be announced at a later date, he said.

The current center-left government has rejected nuclear power generation in Australia as too expensive. Too many coal-fired generators would have been decommissioned before nuclear power could fill the gap.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen accused the conservative opposition Liberal Party of serving Australia’s influential coal and gas industry lobbies.

“It’s not really an announcement. We know that Mr. Dutton wants to slow down the rollout of renewables and he wants to introduce the most expensive form of energy that’s slow to build,” Bowen told reporters.

“But today, we’ve seen no costs, we’ve seen no gigawatts, we’ve seen no detail. This is a joke. It’s a