After having experienced several fortunes, nuclear energy is experiencing a renewed interest in several countries of the world, including European, in response to climatic emergency and increased electricity needs. This energy experienced a brake with the Fukushima Energy Station accident in Japan in 2011. Germany and Switzerland decided their abandonment, while Italy had voted for the release of the nuclear referendum in 1987 after the Chernobyl incident.
A few years later, global nuclear production should reach a record in 2025 according to the International Energy Agency and even continue gaining actions after 2030. According to the latest annual AIE report, renewable and nuclear energies provided 80% of the additional electricity consumed last year. Together, these two energy sources represent 40% of the total electricity production worldwide.
A “fatal decision” for Merz
The former continent concentrates two historical champions in particular. First Britain. The country must gradually stop its nine reactors, many of which reach the end of their life, but, after the closure of its coal power plants, new units are put to reach carbon neutrality in 2050. However, the only current place in Hinkley Point C saw its costs fly and its delayed calendar.
And especially France that, with 57 reactors, the last one connected to the network at the end of December 2024 with 12 years late, remains the most nuclearly per capita country. After planning to close sites, Paris announced in 2022 a new program of 6 or even 14 reactors, the first expected in 2038. France has become the European head of the recovery of the atom, at the head of a “European nuclear alliance” of a dozen countries
But their ambitions face the reluctance of other countries, including Germany, which disconnected its last three reactors in 2023. The latest legislative elections saw the issue of nuclear energy in force in the public debate through the RIN. Started in the 2000s, the exit of the atom was accelerated by Angela Merkel after the incident of Fukushima.
During the last electoral campaign, the curator Friedrich Merz, however, described the closure of German electricity plants as “fatal decision.” And for a good reason, Berlin is now forced to import a significant amount of electricity, especially its French neighbor, despite the increase in the development of its renewable energy production capabilities.
If the new chancellor-control over his coalition has not announced a recovery in nuclear through the RIN, however, he opened a door in early May publishing Figaro A forum with Emmanuel Macron in which the two leaders ask “realignment of their energy policies, based on climatic neutrality, competitiveness and sovereignty” and this “without discriminatory treatment all low carbon energies within the European Union.”
Rome and Brussels return to their decision
Other countries, such as the Netherlands or Sweden, express a renewed interest in nuclear energy, both with the need for energy sovereignty and the need for decarbonation of economies: the two countries have recently launched new central projects. Like wind or solar energy, nuclear is barely rejecting CO2 in the air.
Denmark has also announced in recent weeks its intention to reconsider its prohibition of nuclear energy in force for 40 years. Here again, an important change in energy policy.
And the list is not over: Italy, Belgium and Switzerland that wishes to relaunch the nuclear industry to guarantee its energy safety, particularly threatened by the fall in Russian gas deliveries.
At the end of February, the Italian government reopened the hypothesis of a return to nuclear energy after about 40 years of opposition from public opinion, even if experts believe it will take at least a decade before this turning point is effective. The Giorgia Meloni government argues that nuclear energy could play a key role in strengthening the energy security of the Peninsula, as well as in the decarbonation and reduction of high electricity prices.
The Minister of Energy, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, has established a period of one year to develop a legal framework that allows the return to nuclear, traditional or new generation reactors.
Fifteen days ago, Belgium acted his resignation to leave nuclear energy through a vote of deputies that repealed an emblematic law of 2003. Specifically, the new text, voted by a large majority, abolished any reference to an exit of the atom in 2025, as well as the prohibition that was made to Belgium to build new nuclear production capabilities. It offers the possibility of extending the useful life of other reactors, beyond the two already extended for ten years, until 2035, after an agreement concluded in 2023 between the Belgian State and the Nuclear Park operator, the French Group Engie.
Pragas and Warsaw want to reduce their coal dependence
For Poland or the Czech Republic, nuclear orientation aims to depend less on coal. About 63% of the production of Polish energy depends on this fuel. The immense thermal energy plant in Belchatow is the “largest greenhouse in the EU”, the largest greenhouse gas, according to the Emper environmental organization. The previous government has taken a stage towards the transition from coal in September 2023 by signing an agreement for the construction of the country’s first nuclear energy plant. The first reactor must go into service in 2033. Poland plans to have three nuclear plants, with three reactors each, generating approximately 30% of its energy production.
The Czech Republic wants to build two new reactors by 2036 as part of its transition to less polluting energies. The bidding company of the tenders was won by the South Korean company KHNP and the firm must be formalized in the coming weeks after being delayed by the Westinghouse remedies and the French energy company EDF. The Czech energy group, CEZ, controlled by the State, operates two nuclear plants, Temelin and Dukany, both located in the south of the country, which represent about 40% of the national electricity production. With the two new units and small modular reactors that will be built by 2050, this participation could increase to 50%, while the country moves away from coal and has released oil and Moscow gas.
Madrid still resists
On the back of the EU, acquired in the return of the atom, Spain continues to bet on a final nuclear output, scheduled for 2035. But the pressure increases in the Executive, convened by many actors to review its position assumed by the left government, which wishes to close all its nuclear energy plants within 10 years, while the country has become the European champion of the energy transition.
In the apogee of enthusiasm for the atom, in the 1980s, Spain had eight energy plants, which provided 38% of their electricity. Today, it only has five, with seven reactors and represents 20% of its electrical mixture. And this weight should return again in 2027-2028 with the scheduled closure of the two Almaraz reactors, in the Estremadure (west) region.
This center, the most powerful in the country, produces 7% of Spanish electricity and 15% of Madrid’s electricity. Its closure, acted in 2019 in the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), received the approval of interested companies.
But when approaching the deadline, which implies the upstream launch, the concern increases in the sector. With the electrification of the car fleet and the needs generated by the emergence of the data centers, in an artificial intelligence fund (AI), the demand for electricity can jump to the peninsula in the coming years.
Source: BFM TV
