"We're talking significant periods of time ... two or three decades," Victoria's Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority chief executive Jen Brereton told a federal nuclear inquiry hearing in Melbourne on Wednesday.
"It's for operators to decide what to do with their asset," Dr Brereton said, with three swathes of the Latrobe Valley to be cleaned up after a century of providing coal to adjoining power stations.
Coal power station Hazelwood closed in 2017 after 52 years. (Mal Fairclough/AAP PHOTOS)
Nor would there be short cuts available on legal obligations to make the sites safe and stable if the federal government compulsorily acquired the freehold land to meet its nuclear generation timeline.
Engie's Hazelwood has already closed. Energy Australia is scheduled to close Yallourn in 2028, unless a deal is struck to extend operations, while AGL's Loy Yang A power station is due to close in 2035.
If elected in 2025, the federal opposition says it will build reactors at seven former coal power plant sites across Australia - including Latrobe Valley - to support "cheap, clean and consistent energy".
Small modular reactors will start producing electricity by 2035 or by 2037 if larger plants are the best option, under the coalition plan.
Only a quarter of women say nuclear power would be good for Australia, compared with half of men. (EPA PHOTO)
However, women voters are strongly opposed to nuclear energy and are most concerned any consideration of the controversial power source will delay the switch to renewables, polling shows.
A national survey released by the Australian Conservation Foundation found a stark gender divide, with a mere 26 per cent of women saying nuclear would be good for Australia, compared with 51 per cent of men.
But only one in three of the men surveyed were willing to live near a nuclear plant, according to the DemosAU poll of 6709 adults.
A women's climate change movement, 1 Million Women, surveyed an additional 3351 women and found 93 per cent of its supporters were concerned about nuclear energy, with the top-ranked concern its potential to derail the rollout of renewable energy.
A new survey found women are less likely to think nuclear power is good for Australia than men. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS)
The independent Climate Council said it was concerned the coalition was relying on one private sector "base case" for nuclear costings compared to renewables rather than experts at the Australian Energy Market Operator.
The Clean Energy Council said it would confuse policy makers and confound the public's understanding of the cost of replacing ageing energy infrastructure.
"Ultimately what's crucial is that any new investment is made at the least cost to Australian consumers," a spokesperson for the industry body told AAP.
"Only renewable energy - solar, wind, hydro - together with energy storage, is capable of delivering on this - and it's being built right now," she said.
Community leaders, unions and grassroots organisations are demonstrating outside the hearing to declare "our shared energy future is renewable, not radioactive".
"Shadow energy minister Ted O'Brien is the ultimate triple threat of energy politics: his nuclear plan will increase power bills, increase taxes and increase climate pollution," Sanne de Swart, co-ordinator of the Nuclear Free Campaign with Friends of the Earth Melbourne, said.
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