In the West Australian mining town of Collie, where the opposition plans to build a Small Modular nuclear Reactor, some locals welcome the addition to the energy mix, while others are concerned about safety, and some think it's just empty words. The state Labor government has slammed Peter Dutton's proposal as a recipe for disaster and high power bills, and even the state Liberals say nuclear power doesn't stack up for WA at the moment.
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00:00The retiring MUJA coal-fired power plants just outside Coley ground zero in WA for the
00:07Coalition's flagship energy policy.
00:09Locals caught in the political crossfire.
00:12I'm open to it, honestly.
00:13I think the rest of the world are using it, have been using it for a really long time.
00:17It's more about politics than it is about the nuclear power.
00:21It's got to be part of our energy mix for Australia as a progressive country.
00:25As far as the safety is concerned, that becomes an issue and that's a worry for the town's
00:29people of Coley.
00:31The state government has been trying to shift Coley away from coal to renewable energy and
00:34turn it into a tourist town.
00:36It sees the nuclear proposal as a threat to its energy transition plan.
00:41Nuclear will destroy investment in new renewable energy because a nuclear power plant has one
00:46speed, it's flat out, you can't dial it down, you can't dial it up so easily, it's not flexible.
00:53The state Liberals aren't opposed but aren't swinging fully behind their federal colleagues
00:57either.
00:58We've consistently said that given the abundance of gas in Western Australia, given the network
01:04challenges here as well, we do not believe that nuclear power would stack up in the short
01:12term.
01:13For some worried about their future in Coley though, nuclear power would bring certainty.
01:19Having something like this that will be in our town for a long period of time, I think
01:22it gives us a bit more security and makes us a bit eased about this whole coal mine
01:27situation.
01:28We have another option to keep our town moving.
01:30But in an already parched state, water is always a concern.
01:34A nuclear power station needs heaps of cooling water, where's that going to come from?
01:40We don't have the water in Coley in the Coley Basin.
01:43For many living here in Coley, views on how this coal town transitions away from what
01:47it knows to a new source of energy are polarising, with many split on the town's future.
01:53But it seems everyone agrees more information is needed if the town is to go nuclear.