A resounding majority of ACM Agri readers who responded to an exclusive survey have backed the Coalition's push to explore nuclear energy as an alternative to Labor's renewable agenda.
The poll was conducted after Liberal leader Peter Dutton opened a new chapter in the climate wars in announcing the Coalition would seek a "social licence" for its plans from voters at the next federal election.
He also said last week that six sites for nuclear reactors would be revealed before Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivers the Federal Budget on May 14.
More than 80 per cent of survey respondents said they supported Australia moving towards nuclear energy.
The survey also found that 82 per cent of readers believed the government should fund nuclear energy infrastructure over renewable energy projects.
Just over a third of respondents reside in Queensland, or 34pc, while 28pc live in New South Wales, 19pc in South Australia and 11pc in Victoria.
The Coalition needs ballot box approval to pivot the nation's energy policy given the massive legislative changes a switch to nuclear would require. It also likely needs bi-partisan support with the Greens unlikely to support the measure in any way, shape or form.
Labor's party platform is philosophically opposed to the uptake of nuclear energy.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would push on with renewable projects to transition the nation away from coal and gas energy sources and that nuclear would be slow to roll out time and expensive - with an estimated $400 billion price tag.
And this is before the scare campaign being prepared by Labor and others is even launched.
Despite this, and while the Coalition's plans have so far failed to garner the support of the business and energy communities, not to mention the billions of dollars worth of clean energy projects in various stages of planning, the survey results point to potential grassroots support for a national discussion on the issue.
They also provide tacit support for the lifting of a national ban on building nuclear power stations put into place by the Commonwealth's Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Similar prohibitions exist under the laws of every State and Territory.
Australians have been debating nuclear power since the 1950's. The nation's sole nuclear plant in Lucas Heights, Sydney, was built to test materials for their suitability to use in future power reactors however it was only used to make medical radioisotopes for several years before being decommissioned.
The ban was put into place following lengthy public protest campaigns and deals John Howard did with the Greens and Democrats in the late 1990s when nuclear generation had no chance of competing with cheap, base-load coal generation and there was next to no demand for it in the investment community.
In 2021, former Labor Defence and Agriculture MInister Joel Fitzgibbon wrote in FarmOnline that it was hard to ascertain true community support for nuclear power as "the nuclear prohibition prevents us from testing it."
"It prevents investment proposals and therefore, community and regulatory consideration of any such proposal," he said.
"We can currently debate a principle, but not the merits of a particular project."
Energy minister Chris Bowen has also said small modular reactors of the type flagged for use by the Coalition were not currently commercially feasible.
Despite this Mr Dutton claims nuclear is a "credible path" to net-zero targets in producing "zero emissions" and "cleaner, affordable power and reliable power."
He said the reactors would likely be built on brownfield land on or near decommissioned or retiring coal-fired power plants but did not elaborate on construction time frames, cost, the intended energy mix or how local opposition might be handled.
He added that while he was not against renewable infrastructure he was against Labor's chosen path.
"Going from coal to 100 per cent renewable is just not realistic. No other country is doing that," he said.
While the Coalition's business case is ostensibly boosted by Australia housing about a third of the world's uranium deposits, there have been at least five aborted attempts to build reactors since 1954, the latest in South Australia's Spencer Gulf.
A key concern for local communities is safety, nuclear waste and mine tailings.
Australia's three active uranium mines are Ranger in the Northern Territory and Olympic Dam with Four Mile in South Australia.
