Breakingviews - Nuclear power pitch has magical thinking at core

Antony Currie - Reuters - 20/12
For a great example of how not to pitch nuclear energy, look to Australia. The country's right-wing opposition parties head into next year's federal election claiming that adding seven atomic power stations to the main electricity system would decarbonise it for A$263 billion ($167 billion), or 44%, less than building the renewables-heavy grid the ruling Labor Party government favours. But the financials are misleading, and carbon emissions would mushroom.
MELBOURNE, Dec 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - For a great example of how not to pitch nuclear energy, look to Australia. The country's right-wing opposition parties head into next year's federal election claiming that adding seven atomic power stations to the main electricity system would decarbonise it for A$263 billion ($167 billion), or 44%, less than building the renewables-heavy grid the ruling Labor Party government favours. But the financials are misleading, and carbon emissions would mushroom.
That's because delaying the green transition Down Under is the central feature of the plan launched, opens new tab by the coalition of Liberal and National parties. The two have form. When in office between 2013 and 2022, they did little to replace the ageing, coal-dependent energy system. Their 2021 strategy for net-zero emissions by 2050 relied on questionable technology and modelled almost no progress for 15 years.
Their latest stab wastes even more time. It would require proactively reducing expected investments in wind and solar farms while waiting until the first nuclear power station came on line. That is generously pencilled in for 2036, with most of the rest following in the 2040s.
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