It can’t get any clearer.

Australia needs a new fleet of HELE coal-fired power plants to carry us through the next decade, and a nuclear power industry to carry us through the next century.

Lucky for us, it looks like the Coalition has our back.

With wholesale energy and gas prices now FIVE TIMES higher than they were a few weeks ago, Shadow Energy Minister Ted O’Brien and Nationals leader David Littleproud have FINALLY backed nuclear energy.

O’Brien declared nuclear “absolutely has to be on the table for serious consideration”, saying:

For everybody who loves renewables, renewables need partners in life and there are few technologies out there that can ramp up and ramp down and have a guaranteed ability – nuclear is one of those.

There is no reason why Australia should not have an open discussion about whether or not that should be part of our energy mix. If we truly want to get real about reducing emissions but having affordable and reliable energy – we cannot afford to have that debate without nuclear on the table.

Nationals leader David Littleproud agreed.

“There needs now to be a conversation about nuclear,” he told Sky News. He went on:

Over the next five to 10 years, we have the opportunity to look at new technology … and see whether that can be done in Australia to reduce emissions to give us baseload power, to complement renewables but also to invest in those traditional industries as well to reduce emissions to give us cheap, affordable energy.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton supported his Shadow Ministers. He told the ABC on Monday:

I’m not afraid to have a discussion on nuclear if we want to have legitimate emission reductions,” Mr Dutton told the ABC on Monday.

I don’t think we should be afraid to talk about any technology that’s going to have the ability to reduce emissions and electricity prices. That’s something we can consider in time. I don’t think we should rule things out simply because it’s unfashionable to talk about them.

Well said, Dutts!

The people are on YOUR side.

Afterall, a survey commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs this week found a whopping 53 per cent of Australians agree that “Australia should build nuclear power plants to supply electricity and reduce carbon emissions”. Only 23 per cent of the population disagreed. In fact, the numbers show even more Greens voters support than oppose nuclear power in Australia!

Get on with it, gents!

As ADVANCE has been saying for years now, legalising nuclear energy is as easy as scrapping FOUR WORDS – “a nuclear power plant” – from Section 140A(1)(b) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Commonwealth).

Even better is the potential for thousands of jobs to be created via the establishment of a brand new vertically integrated nuclear power industry.

Think about it!

Australia has one-third of the world’s uranium.

We already dig it out of the ground at Olympic Dam, load it onto trucks destined for Port Adelaide, and then freight it in ships bound for the United States, Europe and Japan.

We live on the world’s most geologically stable continent, making us the safest place on Earth to store nuclear waste.

And we have skills in the nuclear space given there’s a 20-megawatt nuclear reactor only 25 kilometres away from Sydney CBD.

Talk about a bloody no-brainer…