The car park at Murray’s Beach, on the southern head of Jervis Bay, is a monument to Australian visions about nuclear energy. The clearing in the coastal scrub, about three hours’ drive from Sydney, was meant to house a nuclear power plant in the 1970s, when Liberals in Canberra wanted to match the big projects of America and Europe. That dream died when a Treasury analysis found the entire scheme would cost too much.
The project was scrapped after Billy McMahon replaced John Gorton as prime minister in 1971, saving a beautiful bay and its residents from a project that looks, today, like utter madness. Illustration: Simon Letch That history sets up an essential reality check for Peter Dutton after he unveiled his big idea for seven nuclear power stations to be funded by the Commonwealth. The opposition leader has to reckon with the hard fact, as solid as a nuclear cooling tower, that other energy sources are cheaper.
The choice was easy in the 1970s because coal was cheap and could be burnt with no qualms about the climate. The decision is much harder today when coal-fired power stations are closing down. There is no consensus on the solution, only a new phase of the climate wars.
Dutton, however, has one big fact that works in his favour. The energy grid needs new sources of reliable power to make up for the end of coal. If the country cannot build enough renewable power with storage, something else must be added to the grid.
Those who oppose nuclear have to show that ot.