Windmill
CSIRO reports revealed building a nuclear power plant in Australia would cost AU$8.5 billion, 50 percent more expensive than wind and solar power projects. Pixabay

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched a severe attack on the opposition's nuclear energy plans, calling it a fantasy that will delay actions to achieve net-zero goals.

As confrontation with the opposition leader Peter Dutton on the issue of energy policies intensified, Albanese addressed business leaders in Sydney, asking them to explore the "big opportunities" in a net-zero economy, News.com reported.

"Australia cannot afford to go back to the days when energy policy was about fighting for power in the Coalition party room rather than powering the nation. And we cannot afford to waste 15 years down a rabbit hole about nuclear reactors," Albanese said, while speaking at the Sky News/The Australian Economic Outlook lunch in Sydney. "Because just as we will not find our security in isolation, we will not build our prosperity by standing still. Every business leader in this room understands that the world isn't waiting around for Australia."

Earlier in May, Australia's scientific organization CSIRO revealed that building the nuclear power plant would take at least 15 years, costing AU$8.5 billion, which was 50% costlier than wind and solar power projects.

The Coalition had announced to reveal its nuclear plans before the budget in May, but has now postponed it to the end of the year.

The prime minister pushed for Future Made in Australia package that supported global decarbonization efforts through exports of rare earths, critical minerals and green energy, and aims at converting Australia into a renewable energy power. He also pointed out nuclear energy had no merit in Australia, as the country was capable of generating renewable energy due to "natural advantages."

"We have a comparative advantage in this country. We don't have a comparative advantage (in nuclear energy), but we have a disadvantage because we don't have an industry and it would be more than a decade and a half before anything could happen," he said.

On Thursday, Dutton called the government scrutinizing the Coalition's yet-to-be-announced nuclear power plan as "childish," The Guardian reported.

The war of words have continued on social media with Labor aggressively campaigning against Coalition's nuclear plans. Recently, the party posted AI-generated images of mutated fish, with Albanese tweeting about "beautiful parts of Australia" that were potential sites for nuclear reactors if Coalition came to power.