Shadow minister for energy and climate change Ted O'Brien says the Coalition's long-awaited nuclear energy costings will be released within the week.

The nuclear energy transition plan put forward by Peter Dutton in June promised seven sites for proposed nuclear plants but at the time didn't contain costings.

Mr O'Brien refused to tell 7.30 what the cost would be when he was asked if it was more than $600 billion but insisted those details would be released shortly.

"We're not releasing our economics tonight but we will be over the next week," Mr O'Brien said before he criticised the government's energy plan and the associated cost.

That assurance was dismissed by Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who attacked the Coalition's timeline for transitioning Australia to nuclear energy as too slow.

"We don't have the opportunity or the luxury of saying, 'Let's pause until 2037', when, under Ted's own timeline, one power station would come on. Not all of them, not all seven," Mr Bowen said.

Mr O'Brien also said the seven sites that the Coalition had flagged for nuclear stations would not change.

Those sites are Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell and Mount Piper in NSW, Port Augusta in South Australia, Loy Yang in Victori and Muja near Collie in Western Australia.

"We made very clear that there are only seven locations we're looking at," Mr O'Brien told 7.30.

"None of that has changed."

'Deeply offensive': Bowen hits back at Dutton

The debate came on the day the CSIRO released its latest GenCost report.

That report said that building a nuclear power plant in Australia would likely cost twice as much as renewable energy, even accounting for the much longer life span of reactors.

The previous GenCost report was criticised over suggestions that it failed to properly account for a nuclear reactor's long life, which could be anywhere up to 60 or even 80 years.

On Monday, Mr Dutton claimed the assumptions used in the CSIRO's methodology were flawed and he accused Mr Bowen of interference.

"They haven't seen our plan yet and yet they're out bagging it," Mr Dutton said.

"It just looks to me like there's a heavy hand of Chris Bowen in all of this and I don't think people want to see that."

Mr Bowen defended the GenCost report earlier in the day but on 7.30, he rebuked the Opposition Leader.

"I'm deeply offended that the opposition would accuse them of being subject to political interference when they have, for the best part of 100 years, been completely independent of any politician, of any political interference.

"They've brought this report out at complete arm's length from government and its findings are just inarguable."

Backing renewables

Mr Bowen went on to make a further case for renewables and called for the Australian CSIRO report to be listened to.

"I believe in an Australian energy system for Australian circumstances designed by Australian experts," he said.

Asked what his plan was if it did not include nuclear, Mr Bowen said the government would continue to invest in technologies they have already invested in.

"Our plan is to keep going with a few things," Mr Bowen said.

"The strong rollout of solar and wind … other things are moving forward too — Snowy 2.0, started by the previous government, will be an important part.

"We need to store water and renewable energy."

Look back at how the debate unfolded on 7.30 below.

Look back at how ABC readers and other Australians responded to this live moment.

Thanks for joining us

That's it for the live portion of tonight's coverage.

Thanks for joining the 7.30 team for this one and we hope to be back with more debates as a federal election looms in 2025.