Malcolm Turnbull doesn't see there being the commercial demand for nuclear power in Australia to warrant pushing its development.
The prime minister says that while the country has among the biggest uranium reserves in the world, building nuclear power stations takes a very long time.
China has a number of plants under construction but there is no "cookie cutter" design to help efficiently roll out the technology.
There also needed to be bipartisanship, which right now "is not even remotely there", he told a 'politics in the pub' event on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
"The projects take so long to build that they would be very likely to span the lifetime of several governments," Mr Turnbull said on Thursday night.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"They're all bespoke, so it takes a very long time to construct them and very expensive."
On top of that, demand for electricity in Australia was flat or declining.
"I don't see there being the commercial demand for nuclear power," he said.
"That's putting my businessman's hat on rather than my politicians' hat on."
It comes just a few weeks after the Minerals Council released a paper setting out the case for nuclear power.
Nuclear power has relatively strong support among coalition MPs, but it remains a political hot potato and has been repeatedly ruled out by governments because of its cost.
