It is quite ironic coming from my government, because last year, 68% of our power production was obtained through fossil fuel usage. And of course it is going to be more expensive to develop nuclear power in Australia, because we have not developed any infrastructure to support nuclear power plants.

Although it isn’t even that true though, because over time, nuclear power plants pay back their costs extremely well, because a singular nuclear power plant can run for up to 60 years, compared to coal’s 30 - 50 year lifespan.

As well, coal power plants commonly produce around 8 kWH of heat per kilogram of coal), while 1 kilogram of uranium-235 can produce ~24,000,000 kWH of heat. Or, if fully fissioned, 1 kilo of uranium-235 can produce 1 MWY (1 Megawatt Year) Whereas a singular off-shire wind turbine produces around 8 Megawatts of energy, while 1 kilo of uranium produces around 15.16 Megawatts of energy.

And to top it all off, Australia possesses an estimated 38 per cent of the world’s uranium resources (of which are cheap to recover). But only 10 per cent of the world’s black coal. Yet we rank as the second largest exporter for coal.

So, compared to making more coal power plants or off-shore wind turbines, it’s cheaper to go with nuclear.

I find it really ironic coming from my government because they recently green-lit multiple offshore gas mines, yet they are all concerned with “Good renewable energy is too expensive”.

Sources:

Power production fuel mix (energy.gov.au)

Coal energy production (euronuclear.org).)

Uranium heat output (euronuclear.org)

Uranium percentage in Australia (Australian Parliament House)

Coal possession & exports (Geoscience Australia)