Antinuclear

Don’t let Dutton nuclear waste our taxes

Philip White – letter sent to Adelaide Advertiser, 8 July 24

Nuclear proponents have to discredit CSIRO’s costings, or the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy looks ridiculous. They say CSIRO underestimates reactors’ operating lives and utilisation rate.

Due to the time value of money, increasing the lifespan doesn’t make as much difference as you might think. But what sensible person would base their investment decision on 60, or 80, or even 100 year lifespans?

The oldest operating reactor in the world is 54 years old, while the mean age of the 29 units taken off the grid between 2018 and 2022 was 43.5 years.

As for utilisation, the Coalition’s suggested 90% plus rate would actually present a problem for the grid. When demand is low you’d have to shut down all other generation.

But it’s not realistic anyway. Nuclear proponents love to point to France as their poster child, but its utilisation rate in 2022 was just 62%. More than half of its reactors were taken offline due to maintenance or technical problems. It also had to limit output due to problems cooling the reactors during the hot summer.

July 9, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business