Dutton releases Coalition's proposed regional nuclear sites

The proposed locations are end-of-use coal power station sites in Mount Piper and Liddell in New South Wales, Loy Yang in Victoria, Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Collie in Western Australia and Port Augusta in South Australia.

Dutton said the plan was about making use of the "existing assets that we've got".

"The poles and wires that are used at the moment on the coal-fired power station sites ... to distribute the energy generated from the latest generation nuclear reactors," Mr Dutton said.

The rollout would involve the first two reactors to be built between 2035 and 2037, depending on the technology used, with all seven built before 2050.

Mr Dutton said there has been engagement with the local communities and the plan would offer a lot of benefits.

"You're going to provide multigenerational jobs and opportunities for that local economy and there will be a benefit, particularly because you don't have a distribution cost to those energies that will be attracted to that local area."

Mr Dutton did not say what the cost of the plan would be for taxpayers as "the focus today is on the sites".

He said the Commonwealth could apply a national interest test and compulsorily acquire land from states for reactor sites if necessary.

State Liberal leaders in NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland have said they have no plans for building nuclear power plants.

The South Australia Liberal leader David Speirs told ABC radio he supported building a nuclear plant in Port Augusta "if the community could be brought along on the journey".

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed the proposal as a "taxpayer-funded nuclear fantasy" the market had already sorted out.

He told ABC radio the plan "makes no economic sense" and leaves Australia "in a position of energy insecurity because of the time that it will take to roll out a nuclear reactor".

"The markets won't fund something that is 15 years away, something that is the most expensive form of new energy."

"You can't have energy security by saying we'll do nothing for 15 years following on from the Coalition's 22 energy policies that they announced and didn't land one.

"This is a recipe for higher energy prices, for less energy security, less job creation."

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Mr Dutton "wants to slow down the rollout of renewables".

"He wants to introduce the most expensive form of energy that is slow to build. Today we have seen no costs, no gigawatts, no detail," Bowen said.

"This is a joke. A serious stroke because it threatens our transition."

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Nationals Leader David Littleproud called on city-dwellers to have regard to the "lived experience" of regional Australians who felt they were being asked the "bear the brunt" of emissions reduction, including concerns about transmission lines being located on farms.

"It's hurting our lifestyle and our capacity to make a living," he said.

"Understand our lived experience because - you know what? - we count, too. Your food security depends on us and if we can't produce it, your food prices go up."

Mr Littleproud told Sky that regional Australians faced having their communities "tied up with transmission lines, turbines and solar panels" due to "the ideology" of Teal MPs and inner-city voters.

Mr Dutton said high energy prices were contributing to inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

"If you're paying a lot for your groceries now, wait to see where Labor has us in two or three years," he said.

"It's not just your electricity bill that's going through the roof under Labor - it's the local IGA, it's the farmer with cold rooms, it's everybody in the supply chain. And that cost is passed onto you through higher grocery prices."

He claimed that the government's renewable energy plan assumed that "the wind turbines spin around when the wind stops blowing and ... that the solar panels can work in the nighttime".

Gladstone Regional councillor Kahn Goodluck said his community doesn't "need or want expensive, radioactive nuclear energy".

"Our community is the industrial powerhouse of the nation. We're getting on with the job of transitioning our economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy," Mr Goodluck posted to Facebook.

"I'm calling it out and saying NO! Gladstone's energy future doesn't have to be radioactive!"

Victoria's Latrobe City Council said it recognised diverse energy sources were essential, but the community needed to be consulted on social, economic and environmental factors.

Wendy Farmer, president of Voices of the Valley community group, said there were already several renewable projects on the cards and locals would not accept the risk of a nuclear reactor.

"The coalition are just muddying the ground," Ms Farmer told AAP.

"It is just not an option: we can't wait that long ... for energy and we need to get on with what we're doing now.

"Why confuse the energy market?"

Lithgow mayor Maree Statham said many locals welcomed job security, but the town has long-standing anti-nuclear stance.

"If there's a change, we'll have to reassess that at some point no doubt," Ms Statham said.

In a statement, the Mining and Energy Union said the current debate is a distraction from securing new jobs in regions affected by the energy transition.

"Even if nuclear energy was a popular option, according to the CSIRO, the earliest a large-scale nuclear plant could commence operations is no sooner than 2040," MEU general secretary Grahame Kelly said.

"The clock is ticking; we need to be focusing our efforts on delivering an orderly transition for the thousands of workers and their communities who are staring down the barrel of the energy transition now."

A CSIRO report released in May found building a large-scale nuclear power plant would take 15 years, cost at least $8.5 billion and produce electricity at around twice the cost of renewables.

Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton said the proposal risks "the lights going out as coal power stations continue to close".

"No Australian community wants a nuclear reactor on its doorstep and no Australian family wants to share communities and roads with truckloads of nuclear waste," Ms Thornton said.

"As ageing and increasingly costly coal-fired power stations exit our energy system, only renewables firmed by storage is capable of preventing blackouts and power price spikes no family or business can afford."

Senior lecturer in power engineering from at Edith Cowan University Dr Asma Aziz said Australia needs diverse generation and storage but also requires proper assessments before making any decisions.

"It faces high capital costs, long build times, substantial operating expenses, and integration difficulties, making it impractical for addressing the climate crisis. Integrating nuclear power plants into the grid involves complex regulatory and engineering challenges due to their constant 'baseload' supply, which requires other plants to be 'load following'."

"Small modular reactors are not yet viable, with recent cost estimates at $20,100 per kW compared to $700-$1,700 for solar and wind," Dr Aziz said.

He said ageing reactors in the USA are being retired early due to the high cost and a reactor in Flamanville, France has been significantly delayed and over budget.