Why Dick Smith is backing Peter Dutton's nuclear energy plan - as he makes stunning prediction about Anthony Albanese's anti-nuke stance

Entrepreneur Dick Smith is backing Peter Dutton's plan to build the first of seven nuclear reactors in little more than a decade - describing it as good leadership.

The 80-year-old philanthropist and adventurer has likened the Opposition Leader's plan to have nuclear power in Australia by 2035 to former Liberal prime minister John Howard's successful re-election campaign for the GST in 1998.

'I've never used the word risk at all, I think it's just leadership,' he told Daily Mail Australia from the remote Birdsville Track in South Australia.

'It will be like John Howard's successful GST entry, that's what I compare it with and that's why I think Peter Dutton is showing showing some really good leadership.'

The Liberal Party leader is proposing to have Australia's first nuclear reactor by 2035 with a second one operating by 2037, and has announced seven possible sites in every mainland state. 

Mr Smith predicted the ALP federally and at state level would come around to backing nuclear power - arguing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese now supported nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS deal.

'I think Labor will come on side. I'm absolutely sure they will, just as they came on side with the nuclear submarines,' Mr Smith said. 

'It will be identical in the end with nuclear power - it is the only way you can go forward.' 

Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell and Mount Piper in NSW, Port Augusta in South Australia, Loy Yang in Victoria, and Muja in Western Australia have been flagged as the locations for the stations. 

Labor state governments in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have laws blocking nuclear power, but Mr Smith predicts they will end up legislating to overturn these bans as they realise renewable energy is unreliable.

'They will be convinced because there is simply no alternative,' Mr Smith said. 

'We will have blackouts - you can't run a country on intermittent solar and wind; it is impossible.

'I understand every state has a ban on nuclear power, as well we have a federal ban on nuclear power, so those bans will have to be lifted.

'We're one of the largest sellers of uranium in the world but we have legislation stating you can't even consider it and that is completely ridiculous.

'We'll have to change legislation in each state and federal.'

Mr Smith said that while it made sense to convert coal-fired power stations into nuclear reactors, it could take longer to establish a nuclear power industry.

'I think it could take 10 to 15 years,' he said.

'Without doubt, the best thing to do is to put the nuclear power stations where the existing coal power stations are - in effect, all we're doing is instead of generating power by burning coal to heat water, we're going to use uranium to heat water.

'You will need far less extra powerlines if we go to nuclear power.' 

The United Arab Emirates established a nuclear reactor at Barakah in 2020 after eight years of construction work using South Korean technology.

Mr Dutton on Wednesday tweeted an image of a Rolls-Royce small nuclear reactor concept. 

But no country in the world has yet operated small modular reactors that produce 300 megawatts, or 300million watts of power. 

Canada is not expected to have this technology until the late 2020s, when Ontario's state-run power company installs a reactor designed by General Electric and Hitachi.

Mr Smith said larger-scale reactors were probably more likely.

'I'm not suggesting that we're going to have small modular reactors - my suggestion would be we just follow something like the Barakah one in the United Arab Emirates, get the South Koreans to build it, they're experts,' he said.

Labor and the Greens want Australia to source 82 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2030 but Mr Smith predicted there would be more community opposition to wind turbines.

'I think you'll find the majority of the population is sensible in this country and will become vocal supporters of nuclear - we don't want this incredible destruction of the environment that's happening because of these wind factory farms.

'A nuclear power station means probably 2,000 less wind turbines so all of those people will be supporting nuclear. 

'The wind farms are intermittent and unpredictable so you could never run a country, especially now that Anthony Albanese is saying that we are going to industrialise more and make things like solar cells. You need an incredible lot of energy and that's impossible without nuclear power.'

Australia banned nuclear power in 1998 after the Howard government agreed to a Greens amendment to get support for a new research reactor for nuclear medicine at Lucas Heights in Sydney's south.

When it came to storing nuclear waste, Mr Smith suggested Olympic Dam in South Australia, which is also a known deposit for uranium.

'I've been down in the mine at Olympic Dam - there's huge, great cavities where we took uranium out, that's where we should store the waste,' he said.

Mr Smith was unsure if Mr Dutton would win the next election with a nuclear power policy.

'I don't know that - I think he'll make a good prime minister,' he said. 

'I think we have a good prime minister now and I'm hoping, before the next election, that Labor will change its view and support nuclear power.' 

Both sides of politics are committed to a net zero by 2050 climate goal.