Defence Minister Christopher Pyne believes it's unrealistic to suggest Australia will ever establish a nuclear energy industry.
Mr Pyne cannot see the overwhelmingly negative community attitudes towards nuclear power shifting in the foreseeable future.
He made the assertion after fielding questions about why Australia's new fleet of submarines, which are currently under construction, will be powered by diesel rather than nuclear energy.
The minister said Australia would have been the only country in the world with nuclear-powered submarines and no domestic industry to back them up.
"I wish we'd had a nuclear energy industry from the 1950s onward and then this wouldn't even be an argument," Mr Pyne told a Sky News defence summit on Friday.
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"Bob Hawke said the same thing, but I think the horse has completely bolted."
My Pyne described the debate around nuclear energy as a "parlour room" discussion.
"Which prime minister of any political persuasion is going to say, 'I know what we're going to do, we're going to start a nuclear energy industry'?
"We have the most, in some respects, irrational debate occurring around the Adani mine but people think we're going to have a new debate around nuclear energy? I mean, it's just not real world."
