Power plants still need power to operate and even your own supply is not free.

Yeah, and nuclear reactors use a lot of electrical power anyway. When they're first starting they need to draw a lot from the grid and they all have powerful backup generators and battery banks to keep the systems online in the event they need to suddenly shutdown the reactor.

The implausible thing would actually be getting approval to put the panels up, since reactors have high standards for checking the consequences of different materials being used on-site.

It's free real estate ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Because solar panel efficiency is already pretty low so it's best to put them in the areas and in the orientation in which they will receive the most light

At least here in Australia, we believe in the right for a select group of billionaires to make money off the land in the form of coal mining, and renewable energy threatens that right.

Now that the world is turning away from coal as much as possible, we're now pivoting to allow a select group of billionaires to make money off the land in the form of uranium mining, and renewable energy also threatens that.

I actually stand corrected as it looks like ANSTO has a research reactor capable of producing in the megawatt range.

The facility seems to mostly do technologies and medical research, but also prepares uranium for export. Australia has a fair amount of uranium.

that is not a power plant. a power plant supplies power…