A summit in Brussels to revive civil nuclear energy

by Julia Payne and Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Around thirty European leaders gathered in Brussels on Thursday for an unprecedented summit devoted to the revival of civil nuclear energy, a neglected sector which is regaining the favor of States given their climate imperatives.

The stated political ambition of countries favorable to nuclear power, including France, is to develop this energy to achieve climate objectives but also to deal with the energy repercussions of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

However, the sector is weighed down by a lack of investment, high costs and project delays.

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In fact, nuclear power continues to arouse mistrust in Europe, thirteen years after the accident at the Japanese Fukushima power plant in March 2011, particularly in Germany which closed its six power plants and gradually decommissioned the remaining reactors. The last one was closed in April 2023.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, defended the role of nuclear technologies in the transition to green energy on Thursday.

Upon his arrival at the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron praised to journalists energy that was “both low carbon and controllable”.

“We must continue to increase renewable energies here but we also have a strength which is nuclear power, which protects us today from many fragilities,” added the president, taking dependence on other countries as an example. .

The need to find alternatives to Russian gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the European Union’s commitment to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 have revived interest in nuclear power.

“Without the support of nuclear energy, we have no chance of achieving our climate goals on time,” Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told reporters ahead of the summit organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Renewable energy will play a major role in terms of electricity, especially solar power, supported by wind power and hydro power. But we also need nuclear power, especially in countries that do not have great potential in terms of renewable energies,” he added.

Europe must improve its know-how by encouraging the next generation of scientists and developing research to catch up with the rest of the world.

The budget of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), the EU’s key research body, has been cut by 20% for the period 2021-2025.

(Reporting Julia Payne and Kate Abnett; French version Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault and Sophie Louet)