She called for backup

Because nuclear requires enormous initial investment, it's slow to deploy, tricky to distribute, not easily scalable, still needs to be accumulated (because of too much power, rather than too little), still relies on the economics of a fuel.

If we invest heavily in nuclear what we could invest on renewables, we would reap the profits in twenty years.

And we can't make small reactors; for one, because tech isn't ready yet (despite recent Chinese investments), but also because... Who'd want them in their yards?

Also, since you mentioned it... You'd be amazed how little we progressed in renewable tech in the last 20 years, especially solar... We really sat on our comfy gas for a long time, you know... No real incentives...

Nuclear is also a lot more infrastructure demanding, a lot slower to render operational, and a lot more difficult to get the fuel for.

Solar can be scaled up in months, nuclear takes years for a single reactor.

Also, nuclear produces power all the time, but energy demand peaks during the day, when factories and construction sites open.

Also, nuclear is very centralized, which means that any time maintenance is required, power has to be accumulated or generated by other fossil fuels.

Also, nuclear "fuel" has to be mined and processed. It depends on it to run, and so would your economy.