Australia doesn't have nuclear power primarily due to federal laws banning it, along with significant concerns over high costs, long construction times (decades), major safety/waste issues, and the availability of cheaper, faster renewable alternatives like abundant solar and wind power. While Australia holds vast uranium reserves, developing a nuclear industry faces massive financial, logistical, and public perception hurdles compared to its renewable energy potential.
Why is Australia anti-nuclear? There was a dramatic shift in public opinion on nuclear power after the catastrophic Chernobyl disaster in 1986. That shift likely contributed to the introduction of anti-nuclear laws in Australia in 1998 and 1999, which have remained in place ever since.
Even in the most optimistic scenarios, nuclear power is unlikely to come online before 2040, by which time all of Australia's coal plants will have retired, according to the National Electricity Market. In other words, the timelines for a coal-to-nuclear transition don't add up.
The United States is the largest producer of nuclear power, while France has the largest share of electricity generated by nuclear power, at about 65%. Some countries operated nuclear reactors in the past but currently have no operating nuclear power plants.
There can be no net zero without nuclear. Studies have already shown that traditional nuclear is the least carbon intensive form of electricity generation. CORE POWER works on marinized advanced nuclear solutions that offers the opportunity to reduce this carbon intensity even further.
Elon Musk has once again sparked a global debate, this time over the future of clean energy. In a viral post on X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO called the pursuit of nuclear fusion reactors on Earth "super dumb," arguing that humanity is ignoring the most powerful fusion reactor already available—the Sun.
“The best experts suggest it's anywhere between 10-15 years for Australia,” he said. “The UAE [United Arab Emirates] went from scratch to having nuclear in around 13 years, so this isn't unrealistic for Australia to say that we could build it in a good amount of time.”
Nuclear power phase-out
The United States tops the list with 97 GW across 94 reactors. France ranks second at 63 GW, a result of its historic policy to standardize and scale nuclear after the 1970s oil shocks. China follows at 55 GW. Russia (27 GW) and South Korea (26 GW) round out the top five.
China is quickly becoming the global leader in nuclear power, with nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. While its dominance of solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, China is also building nuclear plants at an extraordinary pace.
Forty-eight per cent of AusNet is publicly listed on the ASX, 32 per cent is owned by Singapore Power which is controlled by Singapore government investment fund Temasek and the remaining 20 per cent is owned by State Grid of China.
However, the CSIRO Gencost report already includes the first three elements to determine the integrated renewables cost and shows that even for a 90 per cent renewable energy system, solar and wind are still 1.5 to 2 times cheaper than nuclear power.
Australian mining companies supply uranium under long-term contracts to electricity utilities in North America, Europe and Asia.
It is jointly operated by Australia and the United States, and since 1988 it has been officially called the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (JDFPG); previously, it was known as Joint Defence Space Research Facility.
[2] There are environmental, health, security and social risks associated with every facet of the nuclear industry. These risks disproportionately impact First Nations peoples and their lands.
Radioactive waste is managed at over 100 locations around Australia, including ANSTO, hospitals, universities, and national science and defence facilities. ANSTO manages the overwhelming majority of the low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste in Australia.
Russia and the United States together possess nearly 90% of the world's nuclear weapons, with Russia holding the largest total stockpile and the U.S. having a substantial number of deployed strategic warheads, making them the dominant nuclear powers by far, despite other nations like China, the UK, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea also having nuclear arsenals.
All U.S. nuclear power plants store spent nuclear fuel in "spent fuel pools." These pools are made of reinforced concrete several feet thick, with steel liners. The water is typically about 40 feet deep and serves both to shield the radiation and cool the rods.
Of that total generation: - Roughly **60 %** came from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum) in 2023. - The remainder came from nuclear (~19 %) and renewables (~21 %). Often people reference “70 %” when discussing combined fossil fuels and other sources, or as a rounded figure for fossil fuels plus nuclear.
Australia doesn't have nuclear power primarily due to federal and state laws banning its development, stemming from concerns about cost, safety, environmental risks, and long construction times; this is coupled with strong national renewable energy potential, making nuclear a less attractive, slower, and riskier option compared to solar and wind.
Russia has the most confirmed nuclear weapons, with over 5,500 nuclear warheads. The United States follows behind with 5,044 nuclear weapons, hosted in the US and 5 other nations: Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
Yes, Chernobyl is still highly radioactive in many areas, especially near the damaged reactor, but radiation levels vary significantly; some parts of the exclusion zone have contamination low enough for potential limited agriculture, while a 2025 drone strike damaged the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure, raising concerns about long-term containment, although immediate levels stayed stable as the NSC's function is to contain the original sarcophagus's radioactive material, not the entire zone.
Assuming you're a reasonably good swimmer, you could probably survive treading water anywhere from 10 to 40 hours. At that point, you would black out from fatigue and drown. This is also true for a pool without nuclear fuel in the bottom. Spent fuel from nuclear reactors is highly radioactive.
The numbers who were against bans on nuclear power fell from 34 percent in 2023 to 30 percent in 2024. When asked about keeping the existing Australian ban on using nuclear power, only 18 per cent of women were in favour of lifting the ban. In contrast, twice as many men (35.9 per cent) wanted the ban lifted.
Most nuclear power plants have operating life- times of between 20 and 40 years.