Does nuclear power have a future in Australia? These numbers will help cut through the debate
As the shift away from fossil fuels gathers pace, the Coalition has turned to an emissions-free technology that has a long and contentious history — nuclear fission.
To help make sense of what role, if any, nuclear power could play we turned to Alan Finkel, Australia's former chief scientist, and economist John Quiggin.
There are, according to Australia's former chief scientist Alan Finkel, four kinds of large-scale power generation that directly emit no greenhouse gas emissions.
The fourth is nuclear power, which produces no greenhouse gases during operation, but requires fuel in the form of radioactive elements to power it.
Like renewable energy, the only emissions come from any fossil fuels used in the mining, manufacturing and operation of the plants and fuel.
Even over the life cycle of a plant, nuclear generates just 13 grams of carbon-equivalent emissions a kilowatt hour. That's equivalent to wind power and lower even than solar power at 43g CO2/kWh.
