The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expects a strong increase in nuclear production capacity in the next three decades in a context of climate emergency, according to a press release published on Monday. “Climate change plays a key role, as does the security of energy supply,” declared the director general of the UN agency, Rafael Grossi. Faced with “the geopolitical situation and military conflicts”, “more and more countries consider nuclear energy as a resistant and reliable source of energy,” explains the UN agency.
In the most favorable scenario for nuclear energy, the IAEA predicts at least a doubling of installed power, which would amount to 890 gigawatts in 2050 compared to 369 GW today. Previously it depended on 873 GW. Supporters of the atom highlight that it is an energy source that emits very little CO2 and is controllable, that is, it can be mobilized according to needs, unlike the wind or the sun. But because of the cost and risks, some countries remain resolutely against it.
Coal remains dominant in electricity supply
These new projections were published at the opening in Vienna of the second international conference on the role of nuclear energy in the fight against climate change. This energy provides around 9% of the world’s electricity in 31 countries, far from the dominant coal, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), based in Paris.
The Turkish economist thus urged public authorities, but also “international institutions” – which is not currently the case – to finance the growth of nuclear energy.
The IAEA raised its projections for 2021 for the first time since the Fukushima disaster in 2011, following a powerful earthquake and gigantic tsunami in northeastern Japan. The accident dealt a severe blow to the sector and Germany and Switzerland decided to abandon it. Total nuclear production reached its highest level again in 2021, but the future is uncertain: the fleet is aging and the number of projects launched each year – ten in 2022, half of them in China – is far from the pace of the 1970s and 1980s. . . In 1976 alone, 44 constructions were started.
Source: BFM TV
