Can nuclear energy reduce Co2 emissions?

In his Dame Pattie Menzies Oration on 18 April the Science Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson, promoted nuclear energy as a means of reducing Australia's C02 emissions. 'Is it not time to consider in the longer term the most obvious power source, nuclear power?' he asked. 'The nuclear power that today generates 16% of the world's electricity avoids 600 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. In plain language that's 8% of current global greenhouse gas emissions.' While he said that 'the government has no plans whatsoever' to commit Australia to a nuclear future, he asked: 'Do we not at least owe it to our future to maturely canvass all our options?' Therefore it is timely to make a rational examination of the potential for nuclear energy to reduce C02 emissions. Nuclear power stations themselves do not emit C02, but most of the energy inputs to the full life cycle of nuclear fuel come from fossil fuels and are therefore responsible for C02 emissions