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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/11/coalitions-nuclear-plan-most-expensive-option-for-australia-former-us-climate-official-says>
"A longtime senior US climate official has weighed in on Australia’s energy
debate, saying “very, very few people” internationally are building new nuclear
power plants and, in most cases, the combination of solar and batteries
delivers “higher reliability than gas”.
Dr Jonathan Pershing, a former US special envoy for climate change and climate
negotiator under Democratic presidents, was in Sydney on Monday to speak at the
city’s climate action week. Asked whether nuclear power as proposed by the
Coalition was a viable option for Australia, he said “almost all the numbers
that I have seen suggest that that’s a more expensive option than other
choices”.
“What’s really interesting is the global community’s progress on nuclear with,
frankly, a bigger head start than Australia’s had, because the ban here has
been in place for a long time,” he told
Guardian Australia.
“Very, very few people are building new nuclear.”
Pershing, who is program director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
said even if Australia was able to overcome two immediate hurdles to nuclear
energy – the legislated ban and an historical lack of public support for the
technology – it then faced asking taxpayers to pay “holding costs” for 10 to 20
years when it could be building the same amount of generating capacity sooner.
“The cheapest one still globally, and I think here as well, is probably a
combination of solar plus batteries – and that’s firm capacity, by the way,” he
said. “If we look at the way that’s been analysed, the combination of the two
[solar and batteries] gets you higher reliability than you get from gas.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
