In a function room at Brisbane's The Gabba sports ground, around 600 people have gathered to hear Miss America 2023 try to convince Australians nuclear power is a good idea.
Sporting a blue cocktail dress, blonde hair and a wide smile, 22-year-old Grace Stanke looks the part of a beauty pageant contestant.
She's also a nuclear engineer touring the country with Nuclear for Australia: a pro-nuclear lobby group founded by teenager Will Shackel and funded by donors that include entrepreneur Dick Smith.
The event — billed as an information evening featuring a panel of experts — is off to a rocky start. A protester steps in front of the audience and speaks into a microphone.
Grace Stanke is a former American beauty queen and a nuclear engineer. Source: Supplied
Audience members continue to disrupt last month's event, raising their voices and speaking to the crowd before being herded out by security.
Among them is Di Tucker, a retired psychologist concerned about climate change. She said she became upset after submitting half a dozen questions online to be answered by the panel — and felt like they were being deliberately ignored.
Di Tucker became frustrated when she felt her concerns about nuclear energy were being ignored. Source: Supplied
"I did stand up and I addressed the crowd, and I said something like: 'You people need to go away and do your own research ... it's glossing over facts'."
Nuclear for Australia founder Will Shackel, who was emceeing, estimated there were 20 to 30 protesters heckling the room.
He labelled their behaviour "simply unacceptable and … not in the interest of a fair discussion".
Several people who interrupted the Nuclear for Australia event were escorted out by security. Source: Supplied
Shackel told The Feed: "We had people [who] had to be physically dragged out because they were resisting security … it was pretty ugly and pretty disturbing."
Tucker disputes this: "Nobody I saw leave the room was hostile or aggressive, physically aggressive towards the security guards."
"In fact, it was the opposite. The security guards were shoving the people outside."
Outside, a separate group of protesters wields banners warning against the dangers of radioactive waste.
The words "Nuclear energy distracts from the climate emergency" are projected onto The Gabba over the image of a red herring.
Activists projected this image onto The Gabba sports stadium outside the event. Source: Supplied
The teen and the beauty queen
Tucker said the audience was mostly male and over 60. So why are two young people fronting the pro-nuclear movement in Australia?
Shackel first became fascinated with the nuclear debate while in high school in Brisbane.
"I'd just done a school assignment on nuclear energy when I realised it was banned. And that, as a 16-year-old kid, was pretty shocking to me," he said.
Shackel's advocacy has taken him all over the world, including tours of nuclear power plants overseas and the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. Source: Supplied
At 16, Shackel launched a petition calling on Australia to lift its nuclear energy ban, garnering a flurry of media attention.
"When you look around the world, 32 countries have nuclear … it's a no-brainer for Australia to at least lift the ban to be considering nuclear power and to have nuclear power in a balanced energy mix alongside renewables," he said.
As well as launching Nuclear for Australia — which describes itself as "the largest nuclear advocacy organisation in Australia" with over 80,000 supporters — he's addressed a Senate committee and interviewed French President Emmanuel Macron for his organisation's social media at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai in 2023.
Physicist Ken Baldwin is an emeritus professor at the Australian National University whose work focuses on driving Australia's energy transition.
He believes even if Australia does not adopt nuclear power, the ban should be lifted so at least the possibility is on the table.
"We have one option that is not available when it comes to decarbonising the electricity sector … it's like having one hand tied behind your back when you're trying to combat climate change," he said.
Nuclear power is still a contentious topic, but more Australians have become supportive of the idea over time. indicates 61 per cent support Australia using nuclear power to generate electricity, while 37 per cent were opposed.
Among the 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed, 66 per cent supported nuclear power while 33 per cent were opposed.
In contrast, suggests young people were less likely to agree that nuclear is good for Australia, compared to older respondents. For example, 42 per cent of males aged 18-24 agreed, while 56 per cent of males over 54 agreed.
Responses to a poll conducted by DemosAU for the Australian Conservation Foundation. Source: SBS
Now 18, Shackel suggests young Australians are more open-minded towards nuclear power than older generations and are more likely to support parties that are concerned about climate change.
"I don't think that necessarily means that they're opposed to nuclear energy, I think it just means that they've got a more nuanced position," he said.
Baldwin speculates the rise in support for nuclear power is due to shifting demographics.
A group of anti-nuclear protesters picketed Nuclear for Australia's Brisbane event. Source: Supplied
"The younger generation … doesn't have that particular historical baggage, and perhaps they're more attuned to thinking about the need to do something about climate change," he said.
Nuclear for Australia hopes Grace Stanke can convince the sceptics. Dubbed "the real-life Barbenheimer", she works for the operator of the largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the US, Constellation. (The company operates 21 of the US's 94 nuclear reactors).
When asked by SBS News if her Australian trip was a "desperate plea" to convince a sceptical public, she said:
"No, I don’t think it’s a desperate plea in any capacity. I think it’s a matter of bringing somebody who works in nuclear, who is a young person who cares about this."
Accusations that group is trying to 'creep around the country'
The debate over whether Australia should adopt nuclear power is heating up, as the Coalition heads into this year's federal election proposing to build seven nuclear power plants to replace former or current coal-powered plants.
Nuclear for Australia has been drumming up public support for nuclear power over the past fortnight, touring every capital city (except Darwin) and holding a parliamentary briefing in Canberra.
It also targeted regional areas near the Coalition's proposed sites for future nuclear power stations — including Morwell in Victoria, Collie WA, Port Augusta SA, Callide and Tarong in Queensland and Lithgow in NSW. The Coalition says its taxpayer-funded plan is for five large and two smaller reactors, with the smaller ones to come online in 2035 and the rest by 2037.
Nuclear for Australia was slow to reveal all the names for a total number of regional locations for the tour. During the first week of the tour, Nuclear for Australia told The Feed there would only be two regional stops.
The regional sessions were not publicised beforehand on Nuclear for Australia's social media accounts or the tour page on its website — you could only register for tickets if you knew the URL for the event's webpage.
Campaigns director for the Conservation Council of Western Australia, Mia Pepper, said when she tried to get tickets for the Perth event online, she was denied. She said a colleague also failed to get tickets using their real name, but able to get in using an alias.
She accused Nuclear for Australia of blacklisting known anti-nuclear activists and trying to avoid criticism by attempting to "creep around the country".
Mia Pepper is an anti-nuclear campaigner in Western Australia. Source: Supplied
Shackel said Nuclear for Australia Googles people's names beforehand to determine whether they are "likely going to cause a disruption or a threat", and that regional events aren't publicised on social media because they are not relevant to city-based audiences.
"We care about the safety of our attendees, we care about the safety of our experts," Shackel said.
"If we believe that someone is a known protester … someone who could cause a physical threat to people in there, we will not allow them in."
Pepper said: "I have never been physically aggressive to anybody in my entire life."
"The idea that because you are opposed to nuclear power, you somehow would be aggressive or violent is absolutely outrageous."
Locals left with more questions than answers
South of Perth, around 100 of the 9,000 residents of the tiny coal mining town of Collie showed up to the Nuclear for Australia event, hoping to learn more about how living next to a nuclear reactor could affect them.
The Coalition has proposed converting Collie's coal-powered station into a nuclear power plant. But the state government is vowing to phase out coal by 2030 and there's little chance nuclear power could come online by then, leaving coal workers in limbo.
Resident Jayla Anne Parkin said the information session was "an utter waste of time", and she came away with more questions than answers.
"Their whole speech was very generic. They were probably using the same speech for every single area," she said.
Collie's 9,000 residents could soon face the prospect of having a nuclear power plant built in their backyard if the Coalition is elected. Source: Supplied
"He gave a long-winded speech about how we can take any body of water, whether it be the ocean, the river, pool, sewage, and treat it and turn it into the water. But at the end of him answering it, he still didn't tell me what source of water in Collie they were going to use," she said.
"We're very limited with water here as it is."
Tensions have flared in Collie over the energy debate – when Opposition leader Peter Dutton visited the town last October, he was confronted by angry locals opposing his nuclear plan.
Shackel told SBS that while there have been protesters at Nuclear for Australia's previous Collie event, including those he claimed were abusive and disruptive, there was calm this time around.
Some of Collie's residents aren't happy about the prospect of nuclear power. Source: Supplied
Parkin claimed that some locals acted out at the previous event only after being denied entry.
"People weren't angry, they were just over it. Over being told what is good for Collie without anything behind it," she said.
Shackel said overall, he's received positive feedback on the tour from both pro- and anti-nuclear attendees.
"We had people come up to us and say they started off anti-nuclear but changed their minds afterwards," he said.
Alleged links to political parties
Nuclear for Australia, which is a registered charity, declares itself strictly nonpartisan.
"We are not involved with any political party, we don't accept funds from any political party, nor any special interest group, including the nuclear industry, including any think tanks," Shackel said.
But there have been reports about Shackel's alleged political ties.
analysed Shackel's LinkedIn connections and reported that their political party affiliation leant heavily towards Liberal Party MPs, Senators and advisors.
GetUp reported at least 36 of Shackel's connections, including 11 current or former politicians, were directly linked to the Liberal Party — with the party having the highest concentration of current employees from a single organisation in his network.
In comparison, seven Labor Party connections were identified in Shackel's network, including three Labor MPs.
The report also found more than half of Shackel's connections work, or have worked, in the nuclear, mining or energy sectors.
"It is important to note that LinkedIn connections do not represent collusion between actors … however, analysing this network does provide useful data points in understanding the professional ecosystem Shackel is immersed in," the authors wrote.
Lobby groups are allowed to have political party affiliations. While registered charities can participate in campaigning and advocacy, they "cannot have a purpose of promoting or opposing a particular political party or candidate", according to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
"I'm not a member of any political party -- I never have been, I don't intend to be. Same goes for our board," Shackel said.
The Feed has contacted the Liberal Party of Australia for comment, but did not receive a response.
How viable is nuclear energy for Australia?
As Australia strives to reach net zero emissions by 2050, conflicting claims have been thrown around.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has said adding nuclear to Australia's energy mix would "push up power bills by up to $1,200 a year".
Opposition treasury spokesperson Angus Taylor says the opposite — that nuclear would cut power bills by 44 per cent.
The Coalition has costed its nuclear energy plan at $331 billion, saying it would be cheaper than Labor's renewables-only approach. In contrast, Treasurer Jim Chalmers claims Australia's economy would take a $4 trillion hit under the Coalition's nuclear policy.
Meanwhile, the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator estimate nuclear would cost twice as much as solar and wind power, in their latest GenCost report.
Professor Ken Baldwin said nuclear is "not really viable" as an option for decarbonising Australia by 2050, as it would take 15 years at the very minimum to develop the necessary regulations and build a nuclear power station.
Ken Baldwin thinks nuclear power, if adopted, would come too late to make a difference in achieving Australia's net zero target by 2050. Source: Supplied
"Australia is at the leading edge of the renewable energy transition. We're installing solar and wind at one of the fastest rates per capita of any country in the world."
However, he said nuclear could be one option for decarbonising the very last stage of the electricity system.
Shackel is optimistic about the future of nuclear power in Australia.
"I think we will ultimately win this debate."
Additional reporting by Christopher Tan.
