In Germany, the last reactors will soon go offline, but other European countries continue to rely on the technology.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin, London, Istanbul, Madrid, Stockholm, Paris, Rome In Germany, nuclear power will soon be history. After the reactor disaster in Fukushima in 2011, the federal government accelerated the phase-out of the technology. The last systems are to go offline in the coming year. In the German neighborhood, however, a number of countries continue to rely on nuclear energy.
France is at the forefront of nuclear power advocates: the neighboring country gets more than 70 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, the state-owned energy company EDF operates 58 reactors at 18 locations. Although France wants to reduce the proportion of nuclear power in its energy mix to 50 percent in the future, the target date was postponed from 2025 to 2035 under President Emmanuel Macron.
France is having problems building a new reactor in Flamanville in the north-west of the country. The one-time prestige project has been delayed for a decade and costs have tripled. The commissioning of the “European Pressurized Water Reactor” (EPR) is not expected until the end of 2022 at the earliest.
The new type of reactor will also be used in Finland, but the construction project in Olkiluoto on the west coast of the country is also seriously behind schedule. Despite all the mishaps and the extremely high construction costs of the Olkiluoto 3 reactor, a sixth reactor is already being planned in Hanhikivi, southwest of Oulo. The building application is still pending. Climate neutrality by 2035 is only possible through the use of nuclear power and renewable energy sources, according to Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s center-left government.
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Resistance to the expansion of nuclear energy is manageable, even representatives of the Greens consider CO2-free nuclear power to be an interim solution on the way to climate neutrality. There are currently four reactors in operation, which provide almost a fifth of the electricity required.
France continues to rely on nuclear power, but the construction of a “European pressurized water reactor” (EPR) – here in 2009 – has been delayed considerably.
(Photo: Imago)
Finland’s neighbor Sweden, with its currently six operating reactors, is zigzagging on nuclear power. In the early 1980s, it was decided to phase out nuclear power by 2010. Almost 30 years later, this decision was again obsolete. It is now the case that new power plants can be built at the locations of the previous reactors.
In view of the high costs, however, it is unlikely that a consortium will be found for the new building. Because there should no longer be state subsidies. Sweden gets almost 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, the rest comes from renewable energies.
Poland wants to use nuclear power instead of coal
Poland is heavily criticized for having the highest share of coal in its heat and electricity production and will not be the last country in the EU to phase out coal until 2049. So far, 70 percent of electricity and heat have been produced from coal, mostly from lignite and Silesian hard coal.
According to the Polish energy strategy “Polityka Energetyczna Polski” (PEP), six reactors are now to be built in two nuclear power plants in order to manage the phase-out. The start of construction is planned for 2026, the first kiln is to go into operation in 2033, the others by 2040. The now planned nuclear power plants will probably be located in Zarnowiec near Danzig, only 150 kilometers as the crow flies from the German border, and in nearby Lubiatowo-Kopalino.
Great Britain is also relying on nuclear power, where seven nuclear power plants produce 17 percent of the electricity. However, this share will halve by 2024 because four of these power plants will be shut down by then.
A new nuclear power plant, Hinkley Point C, is currently under construction and is scheduled to go online in 2026. Another, Sizewell C, is at an advanced stage of planning. Together, they should keep the share of nuclear power in the energy mix stable over the long term.
In a ten-point plan for the “green revolution”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson described nuclear power as an essential pillar of decarbonization. His government plans to provide half a billion pounds for the construction of new nuclear power plants.
The debate is returning in Italy
Back is the debate about nuclear power in Italy, where the topic actually seemed off the table. After the Chernobyl disaster, the country decided to shut down its then four power plants. More than 20 years later, the then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi started an attempt to revive nuclear energy. But in 2011, the people decided against returning to work – with a clear majority of more than 94 percent.
The latest push for nuclear power comes from the Minister for Ecological Change of all people: the physicist Roberto Cingolani, who has been in Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s cabinet since February, does not want to rule out the possibility of building “fourth generation” reactors in the country in the future. If Italy wants to achieve its climate goals, the country would have to install ten times as much renewables per year as before. That is hardly possible.
With the help of the Russian company Rosatom, Turkey is building the Akkuyu nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast. The four reactors have a planned total capacity of 4.8 gigawatts. This would enable the country to cover around ten percent of its energy needs in one fell swoop. The first reactor with an output of around 1.2 gigawatts is scheduled to go into operation in 2023. Climate protection issues seem to play less of a role in the plans, but rather the high dependency on energy imports to date. “A country cannot develop further without nuclear energy,” declared the then Turkish energy minister at the start of construction on the Akkuyu power plant in 2015.
Meanwhile, Spain, like Germany, is sticking to the orderly phase-out of nuclear energy despite ambitious climate targets. There are currently seven nuclear reactors in operation in five plants that generated 22 percent of electricity in Spain last year. Madrid has agreed with the operators to shut down all reactors between 2027 and 2035. Spain is currently investing heavily in renewables and has set itself the goal of becoming the most important hub in Europe for green hydrogen. Atomic energy does not play a role.
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