By Alec Hogg
If you fret about having a tough job, consider those unfortunate souls earning their daily crust in the nuclear power industry. They are the perfect dinner party punch bags, with even the most superficial of researchers able to throw Fukushima into a stew containing Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.
To counter the poor safety record, the nuclear lobbyist would quickly point to the economics. But that’s gone. Moore’s Law has grabbed renewables, resulting in costs falling to well below those of nuclear. The UK’s latest offshore wind project for instance, was awarded at a guaranteed price to the grid of £57.50 per MW hour for 15 years. Against that, the controversial Hinckley Point nuclear project comes in at £92.50 for 35 years.
And now, thanks to the ingenuity of Elon Musk and others of his ilk, the nuclear lobby’s last playable card is also being extracted. Nuclear fans prattle on about the advantages of guaranteed “baseload”, often adding a sarcastic jibe about the wind not blowing all the time, or the sun not shining at night. But as energy storage options (ie batteries) continue along their exponential improvement path, this baseload argument is also losing relevance.
No matter how tough things seem in your own life, there is always someone worse off. Right now, the nuclear power sector fills that unenviable slot.
