The UK government has conceded that Australia was mistakenly included on a list of countries that were expected to sign up to a US-UK civil nuclear deal.
The Albanese government flatly denied media reports on Tuesday that it would join the UK and the US in a collaboration to share advanced nuclear technology. The UK and the US announcement said they would speed up work on “cutting-edge nuclear technology”, including small modular reactors, after inking a deal at the Cop29 UN climate summit in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
The UK government’s original media release noted Australia was one of 10 countries “expected” to sign on to the agreement, but mention of Australia was removed a short while later. The other nine countries were also removed.
An Albanese government spokesperson said “nuclear power is outlawed in Australia”, but Australia was an observer to the agreement “to continue to support our scientists in other nuclear research fields”.
“As Australia does not have a nuclear energy industry, and nuclear power remain[s] illegal domestically, we will not be signing up to this agreement,” the spokesperson said.
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