A vocal advocate of nuclear power in Australia, Dr Alan Finkel, is set to be named as the country’s next chief scientist.

The appointment of Finkel, an engineer and former neuroscience research fellow who has served as the chancellor of Monash University since 2008, is due to be announced by Malcolm Turnbull this week.

It is not yet clear whether the prime minister’s choice, first reported by the Herald Sun on Monday, signals a new openness by the government to consider nuclear power generation.

Finkel has previously called for debate about nuclear electricity, saying Australia would be able to manage such a system “at very high safety levels”. He has couched his arguments in terms of the potential of nuclear power to curb global emissions of carbon dioxide.

Guardian Australia has independently confirmed that Finkel’s appointment is set to be announced this week. He will replace Professor Ian Chubb, who was appointed as chief scientist by the Gillard government in 2011. The former prime minister Tony Abbott extended Chubb’s term to the end of 2015.

Turnbull praised Chubb for a “distinguished term of leadership”, as the prime minister vowed to place science “right at the centre and the heart of our national agenda”.

“Even when science has been under attack, you have never flinched and you have always stood up for science and its central importance in Australia, both today and in our future,” Turnbull told Chubb at the prizes for science dinner in Canberra last week.



“Now, the best accolade I can give Ian Chubb is to assure him that we’re working to put into effect the very ambitious agenda he set us. We have to be – and we will be – a country that invests in science and puts it right at the centre of our national agenda.”

Finkel is president of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He also heads the classroom resources company Stile Education and chairs the Australian Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics.

The energy white paper released by the Abbott government in April 2015 did not signal any shift from the legislated ban on nuclear energy plants in Australia. But it did suggest the Coalition would consider the findings of the yet-to-be completed nuclear royal commission launched by the South Australian Labor government.

Asked on Saturday about the possibility of establishing a nuclear industry, the federal Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said he would “wait to see what the royal commission says” but had “always believed that the cost of nuclear energy outweighs the economic benefits, and that’s before we get to the environmental safeguards”.

“Our priorities are on solar and wind power, renewable energy, [and] making sure that we’ve got fair dinkum targets for climate change,” Shorten said on the sidelines of the South Australian Labor party conference.

The position of chief scientist provides high-level advice to the prime minister and other ministers on science, technology and innovation, while publicly championing research and evidence-based decision making.