A leading welding industry lobby group in Australia has hit out at the Federal Opposition’s plans to include nuclear power plants in the nation’s energy mix, saying that ideas about keeping aging coal plants open whilst the nation waits for nuclear plants to be delivered are not feasible.

The Opposition Liberal/National Coalition last week released its modelling in relation to the cost of its plan to build seven nuclear power stations to help support renewable energy as Australia transitions its economy away from fossil fuels.

However,  WELD Australia has criticised the plans, which rely upon keeping many of the nation’s aging coal plants operational for at least another twelve years.

In a statement, WELD Australia CEO Geoff Crittenden said that the notion that coal-fired power stations can continue to operate reliably and indefinitely to bridge the energy gap until nuclear plants are able to be delivered is unrealistic.

According to Crittenden, existing coal plants are showing signs of aging and will not be able to cope with being extended for that period of time.

At any rate, he says that many of the workers who have the skills needed to maintain and upgrade existing coal plants are either retiring or have retired.

“It is a fantasy to imagine that coal-fired power stations can keep running without billions of dollars being poured into their maintenance, Crittenden said.

“Many of these plants have already exceeded their design life two- or threefold. The boilers and turbines are on their last legs, with corrosion, material failures, and creep already posing significant challenges. These power stations were designed for around 250,000 hours of operation. Many have clocked over 500,000 hours and are now struggling to remain operational. The suggestion that they can continue running is not just unrealistic—it’s reckless.

“Boilers and turbines at coal-fired power stations are not designed for infinite operation. Many are already being pushed beyond their intended limits, forced into flexible operations—being switched on and off to accommodate the growing input of renewable energy. These processes impose immense stress on ageing equipment, escalating maintenance costs to unsustainable levels and requiring total rebuilds just to keep them functional.

‘The industry also faces a critical shortage of skilled workers to maintain and refurbish coal-fired power stations. The reality is that the workforce needed to sustain these plants simply doesn’t exist anymore. Many of the skilled workers have retired, and finding people with the expertise to maintain these outdated plants is near impossible.

“It’s (extending the life of existing coal plants) like expecting a 1924 Model T Ford to barrel down the Autobahn at 120km per hour—it’s just not feasible. The infrastructure is outdated, the workforce is dwindling, and the costs are astronomical.”

Crittenden added that any reliance upon technologies such as carbon capture and storage raises further concerns as these technologies are not working at the scale required anywhere in the world.

Rather, he said that renewables supported by storage provide a solution which is reliable, cost-effective and sustainable.

Crittenden’s comments come as Australia’s energy transition is expected to be a key issue in the federal election early next year.

The current Labor Government is pursuing a strategy which is geared around an aggressive rollout of new solar and wind energy generation supported by storage (batteries/pumped hydro) and additional transmission to connect new renewable assets to the grid.

The Opposition Liberal/National Coalition, by contrast, is planning for renewables to be supported by seven nuclear power plants that would be constructed on the site of current or former coal power plants. These would deliver 38 percent of Australia’s energy (with renewables delivering a further 54 percent) by 2050.

This, it says, would deliver a more stable and reliable grid compared with Labor’s plan, which is heavily dependent upon the nation having sufficient storage capacity from batteries and pumped hydro in order to deliver reliable power during periods where generation from solar and wind generations assets is low.

Last week, the Opposition released its modelling in relation to the cost of its plans.

Prepared by Frontier Economics, the modelling claims that the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan would deliver savings of 44 percent compared with Labor’s plan by 2050.

That modelling, however, conflicted with an earlier report from the nation’s leading science agency in the CSIRO. The CSIRO report found that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy even when costs associated with storage and additional transmission are considered. Nuclear, it said, is the most expensive form of energy of all generation technologies which were considered.

Moreover, the Frontier Economics modelling has been criticised for failing to provide important detail regarding how its numbers are calculated.

A further concern about in relation to the nuclear plan revolves around the time which is expected to be needed in order for nuclear plants to be delivered.

Whilst the Opposition claims that it can have its first nuclear plant up and running in ten years, the CSIRO says that the development timeframe for large-scale nuclear will be at least fifteen years.

This means that nuclear power would not be able to be operational in Australia until at least 2040 – with at least some existing coal fired power plants needing to continue to operate until then.

Instead of nuclear, Crittenden says the focus should remain upon the renewable energy rollout.

“Weld Australia maintains that the focus must be on accelerating the transition to renewable energy and investing in the workforce and infrastructure needed to achieve this goal,” Crittenden said.

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