EU Signals Rekindled Interest in Nuclear Power

EDF Energy's Sizewell B nuclear power station, in Sizewell, England, on Sept. 1, 2022. Chris Radburn/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

As the European Union (EU) grapples with energy security challenges, signals are emerging that the bloc may resurrect nuclear power as a crucial component of its energy strategy, although the transition may take considerable time.

The ongoing Ukraine–Russia conflict and the EU’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 have rekindled interest in nuclear power as an alternative to Russian gas.

The push has gained fresh momentum, driven in part by a 12-nation pro-nuclear alliance led by France that could prompt EU ministers to put atomic power higher on its agenda as part of its net zero goals.

The European Nuclear Alliance, established in February 2023, also includes Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden. The alliance advocates nuclear energy as a way to address Europe’s “existential challenge.”

In October, the alliance urged the European Commission in a joint statement to incorporate nuclear power into its upcoming 2024–2029 mandate, emphasizing its essential role in reducing emissions.

Experts told The Epoch Times that although there is growing recognition of nuclear energy’s importance in Europe, the revival of the sector could take time because of decades of decline.

‘More Nuclear’

In recent years, EU leaders have prioritized a renewables-first energy approach along with the EU’s aims to be “climate neutral” by 2050.

However, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a keynote speech in August that Europe needed “more nuclear.”

Speaking about Europe’s energy crisis amid the Ukraine–Russia conflict, she said: “We have learnt our lesson. When we speak about our energy, we have to produce more of our own energy—more renewables, more nuclear, more efficiency.”

Just a year prior, speaking about the Net Zero Industry Act—which incentivizes technologies deemed necessary to reach the EU’s climate goals—von der Leyen downplayed nuclear energy’s role.

While nuclear “can play a role” in the decarbonization effort, she said, only net-zero technologies deemed strategic for the future, such as solar panels, batteries, and electrolysers, “have access to the full advantages and benefits.”

The Tihange nuclear plant in Huy, Belgium, on April 27, 2024. Nicolas Maeterlink/Belga/AFP via Getty Images

Nuclear Renaissance

With reawakened interest in nuclear energy, the funding will come, according to one expert.

“The technology has always been there. We [have known] how to build nuclear reactors since the 1970s, but the funding dried up for political and economic reasons, and this, I think, is now getting reversed,” Ralph Schoellhammer, a visiting fellow at Budapest’s Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) and an expert on energy policy, told The Epoch Times.

With increasing support for nuclear power, he predicted, “the money is going to be there.”

In a report for MCC Brussels, Schoellhammer said that the 2022 European energy crisis shifted public attitudes toward nuclear energy, creating a “newfound realisation that energy supplies are less secure than many people believed.”

“The only source, at least in the realm of electricity, that has the capacity to make up for this, is nuclear. Behind closed doors, more and more people admit this,” Schoellhammer said in a phone conversation.

He said the United States is experiencing a “nuclear renaissance,” with banks and major investment funds expressing renewed interest in nuclear projects.

September and October witnessed an uptick in nuclear interest from companies such as Amazon, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft, all of whom announced deals to power their energy-intensive data centers with nuclear energy.

Microsoft’s agreement with Three Mile Island, the site of a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979—the most significant commercial nuclear power accident in U.S. history—illustrated the lengths to which Big Tech is willing to go to secure electricity for its expanding AI operations. Microsoft’s deal involves purchasing the plant’s entire electric generating capacity over the next 20 years.

As a political theorist and commentator, Schoellhammer has close ties to the heart of the EU’s political machinery in Brussels. He said that although “very few want to speak about it publicly, it has become increasingly clear that the energy transition, which was primarily [a] wind- and solar-based system, an intermittent electricity sources-based system, is not going to work.”

Without nuclear power, he said, Europe not only risks failing to transition away from fossil fuels but also forgoes the opportunity for a prosperous future, as it seeks to reduce dependence on energy imports from Russia and China.

A Breaking Point

Schoellhammer is optimistic about a new atomic age. However, he said that if nuclear power is not embraced in the EU and if U.S. electricity prices continue to fall because of cheap natural gas and nuclear energy, the competitiveness of European industries will suffer significantly.

If falling U.S. electricity prices allow U.S. industries to produce goods more cheaply, they could make it challenging for European industries, which face higher energy costs, to compete.

In a September report on EU competitiveness requested by the European Commission, former European Central Bank chief and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned that as the EU struggles with elevated energy prices after losing access to cheap Russian gas, it needs to act or it will endure a “slow agony.”

Draghi said that the EU must adapt—highlighting the key role of nuclear power as well as renewables—to remain competitive with economic rivals such as the United States and China.

“There is a breaking point where even the most resisting politicians will say: ‘We can’t do this. Our industry is dying; our people are revolting about high energy prices,’” Schoellhammer said.

Skepticism

While the pro-nuclear alliance is pushing for change, skepticism persists, particularly in Germany—the EU’s largest economy.

Germany’s long-standing opposition to nuclear energy, a policy that was solidified under Angela Merkel’s government and the Green Party’s influence, continues to cast doubt over the future of nuclear power in Europe.

The country shut down its last three nuclear plants in 2023, despite their ability to operate for decades—even a century—opting instead for energy sources such as wind and solar.

Along with Germany, Denmark, Austria, Portugal, and Luxembourg have similarly rejected nuclear energy in favor of renewables such as solar and wind energy.

By contrast, France boasts a very active and longstanding nuclear power program—its first commercial nuclear reactor connected to the electricity grid in 1963. France generates about 70 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest share worldwide.

Some of the anti-nuclear sentiment in Europe is shaped by political ideologies and fears about safety from major historical incidents such as Fukushima and Chernobyl—despite nuclear energy’s environmental benefits such as lower land requirements and zero carbon emissions.

The Ukraine war, with the threat of nuclear facilities coming under attack, has increased these safety concerns.

Groups such as the socialist Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is affiliated with Germany’s Green Party and advocates nearly 100 percent renewable energy by 2040, claim that “backsliding on renewable energy commitments or new subsidies for nuclear energy” risk undermining Europe’s energy security, as the group said in a list of policy recommendations in March 2024.

Small Modular Reactors

The EU’s focus on renewables is expected to continue under the stewardship of Teresa Ribera, a Spanish climate expert who is poised to become the European Commission’s first executive vice president. Energy and climate issues will be among Ribera’s responsibilities in her new post.

As Spain’s ecological transition minister, Ribera advocated the closure of the country’s nuclear power plants.

However, Ribera has hinted that she will not oppose nuclear power expansion in Europe.

Speaking at a news conference on Sept. 17, Ribera said that as chair of the EU energy ministers’ meetings last year, she “played a very important role not to minimize anyone and to facilitate solutions that can fit and make sense in the strategic change that the European economy is promoting.”

Moreover, serving under Ribera will be the EU’s new commissioner for energy and housing, Denmark’s Dan Jorgensen. In her mission letter to Jorgensen, von der Leyen directed him to support the accelerated development of small-scale nuclear reactors.

Known as SMRs—small modular reactors—the compact nuclear reactors are designed to generate power in smaller amounts. Because of their small size, SMRs have advantages over traditional larger reactors in terms of expense, site requirements, security, and safety.

To advance the technology, the commission introduced an industrial alliance dedicated to SMRs in February and recently selected nine companies to accelerate the technology’s development across the continent by the early 2030s.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, currently, there are only four SMRs in advanced stages of construction, located in Argentina, China, and Russia. One example is the Akademik Lomonosov, a Russian floating nuclear power station in the Arctic that began operations in 2020, producing energy from two SMRs.

Regaining Lost Ground

Energy analyst and author Robert Bryce said that the EU’s SMR projects show “real interest and momentum in the nuclear energy sector.”

“I’m adamantly pro-nuclear,” Bryce told The Epoch Times in an email. “That said, it’s clear that while the nuclear energy sectors in the EU and the U.S. are getting a lot of attention lately, the nuclear comeback will take a long time.”

“The nuclear sector withered over the course of decade,” he said. “It will take decades to bring it back.”

Bryce estimated that significant SMR deployments may not occur until 2032 or later.

Although he said he views the EU’s interest in SMRs as a positive sign, he warned that some companies entering the sector are “paper reactor companies” lacking the resources to bring their designs to market.

He said, based on his calculation, there are at least 39 companies that are vying to get into the SMR business. Although some of them are well established, dozens “will never build a working reactor, much less achieve commercial viability.”

Regulators should eventually standardize a few viable designs, Bryce said, much like France did in the 1970s, constructing standardized reactors that continue to operate today.

When approached for comment, an EU spokeswoman pointed The Epoch Times to a statement of its general stance on nuclear power. “The European Commission keeps a technology-neutral approach and respects the right of Member States to choose their own energy mix within the EU climate and energy framework,” the statement reads.

It also states that the commission’s role is to ensure that member states that opt for nuclear energy “apply the most demanding legal framework meeting the highest standards for nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation.”