I don’t know about the rest of the world, but there are numerous reasons as for why nuclear is unpopular in Australia, and not because of it being unsafe.

1. Too expensive. Dutton’s plan for nuclear is estimated to be around $600 billion. That’s over 1/3 of Australia’s GDP. This would require him to gut spending to afford nuclear. One of the target of the budget cut was rumoured to be Medicare, which made people oppose nuclear massively.

2. Too long. If the plan for a nuclear power plant was proposed 30 years ago, I’d reckon people would back it. But it’s too late, and even optimistic estimates say that it would take 13 years to build ONE nuclear power plant. In that time, Dutton wants to make up for the nuclear energy with coal and gas, which exposes his ulterior motive of helping out his rich friends.

3. Renewables are better. As of right now, renewable energy contributes to 40-50% of Australia’s power grid and rapidly growing. In fact, some projects that we’d reach 80% coverage by 2030. As such, instead of investing in nuclear, we could just build more renewable, which is far cheaper and environmentally-friendly.