“I’m not here to tell other countries what to do. Nuclear plays a role in various countries’ mix, but in Australia, it never has,” Chris Bowen told CNBC on the sidelines of the G20 energy ministers meeting in Goa, India.

“Wherever you look, there’s issues from our point of view with nuclear energy,” he said, outlining problems that can come from adopting nuclear energy.

Apart from being extremely expensive, it generates large amounts of waste and is an inflexible energy source, he told CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah on Saturday.

Furthermore, he claims that Australia will be starting from “worse than scratch” because it has never had a nuclear industry in the first place. To keep the lights on, Australia will need to “double down” on renewable energy, storage, and transmission, according to the Australian minister.

“For those countries that are blessed with abundant renewables, harnessing those renewables, increasing their share of our energy mix, and then exporting as much as possible in due course, is vital for national security as well.”

Source: CNBC