Green dreams, broken promises: Can’t keep the nuclear option closed forever

Another day, another clean energy collapse - now BP has axed its $55bn Pilbara hydrogen dream, the latest in a string of failed projects that’s fuelling calls for a nuclear option, writes Christina Talacko.

It’s becoming routine now. Another morning, another headline about a renewables project biting the dust. This time, it is BP walking away from the epic $55bn Pilbara hydrogen dream.

This was no modest scheme. With a price tag that dwarfed even SunCable, it was pitched as a bold cornerstone for the future of Australia’s hydrogen dream, a project to put us on the global map. Instead, it has become a symbol of just how fragile that future is.

BP is far from alone.

The Central Queensland Hydrogen Project, once championed as a 2.9GW cornerstone of Queensland’s clean energy economy, has been scrapped.

BlueFloat Energy’s 2GW Gippsland Dawn offshore wind farm for Victoria is off the table.

Equinor has walked away from its 1.6GW floating wind plans off NSW. In Yass, Engie abandoned its 100MW solar plus 250MW battery project. Origin quietly dropped its Morgan and Carisbrook solar farms.

RES withdrew its 441MW Barneys Reef wind project.

Even the ambitious Aurora solar thermal plant in Port Augusta, once promising up to 400MW of long-duration storage, has been shelved. These weren’t just nice-to-have projects. They were essential to fill the gap left by coal plants shutting down earlier than expected. They were meant to stabilise a grid under strain and meet our net zero pledges.

Their absence is exposing the cracks in our strategy and the short-sightedness of the people tasked with leading us through this transition.

The now scrapped Central Queensland Hydrogen Project.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see where this path leads. Energy experts call it “energy poverty”; power that is no longer cheap.

No longer reliable. Industries that leave our shores because the cost of doing business here is uncompetitive. Families that will be paying more for less. A slow erosion of our standard of living.

We must read the signs and be honest. Renewables will remain central to our energy future, but they cannot do it all; not on their own, and not fast enough. It is time to put a real Plan B on the table. For me, Plan B is nuclear energy.

When I recently visited France’s Tricastin nuclear complex, I saw what pragmatism looks like. Four reactors, each producing around 915MW, generate more than 3.6GW of zero-carbon electricity day in and day out.

No cancelled pipelines. No investor panic. Just stable, affordable power that keeps industry competitive and homes warm.

Tricastin also powers France’s uranium conversion and enrichment facilities, making it an energy cornerstone. It employs more than 4500 people directly and supports thousands more in surrounding industries, creating a local economy that thrives on skilled, stable jobs.

Nuclear in France is not a political football. It is a sovereign asset. It underpins its competitiveness, insulates households from volatility, and makes climate targets achievable.

France provides a lesson Australia cannot afford to ignore. Nuclear supplies around 70 per cent of its electricity, making it one of the world’s lowest carbon grids and a net exporter of power. In fact, France earns more than $A5.3bn annually exporting electricity to neighbours that rely on its stability.

Two cooling towers at the Civaux nuclear power plant in Civaux, central France. Picture: AFP

Even Germany, once nuclear’s most vocal opponent, now agrees to work with France to integrate nuclear into European energy policy as part of their wider climate and energy security co-operation.

The European Union is also opening the door to funding nuclear projects in its next budget cycle, recognising the role they play in achieving decarbonisation.

Australia could do the same. We mine the uranium. We are building nuclear submarines. We have world-class engineers and regulators. Yet we refuse even to begin the conversation.

The nuclear ban, born of a different era, prevents us from lifting our gaze and planning properly for the future.

Nuclear is not a silver bullet, but it offers what renewables cannot: a steady, carbon-free baseload that complements wind and solar, stabilises the grid, and reduces the need for costly storage and backup.

It can keep prices stable for households and industry while creating thousands of skilled jobs across construction, operations and regulation. Lifting the ban does not mean building reactors tomorrow.

It means giving ourselves the freedom to plan, to assess modern small modular reactors, to create a regulatory framework, and to have an honest public debate about our options.

I wish we were the bold, pragmatic nation we like to believe we are. But we are not. We are letting opportunity slip, gambling with our future, and leaving households and industry exposed to rising costs and uncertainty.

So, how many more billion-dollar projects need to collapse before Canberra admits our strategy is failing and does something about it?

Cristina Talacko is CEO of the Coalition for Conservation