This article is part of The Conversation’s “Business Basics” series where we ask experts to discuss key concepts in business, economics and finance.

Nuclear power is expensive, but it remains a cornerstone of the Coalition’s plan to get Australia to net-zero emissions.

The federal opposition is yet to release its own costings for the proposal.

Nonetheless, federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton caused something of a stir when in a recent speech, he said the costs of Australia’s nuclear plants could be “amortised” over their 80-year lifespan.

If hearing a word like “amortised” immediately makes your eyes glaze over, you’re probably not alone.

To make things even more confusing, Dutton may have confused the term with the closely related concept of “depreciation”. We’ll discuss why later.

But amortisation and depreciation are both important concepts in any corporate decision making.

So what exactly was the opposition leader talking about here, and what does it mean to write off the cost of an asset over time?

Amortisation has a wide range of applications across finance, including credit, loans and investment planning.

Here, though, we’ll focus on what amortisation means in the accounting context.

You might notice amortisation looks a bit like the more familiar term “mortgage”. This is because both are........

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