Berlin, Düsseldorf In Germany, nuclear power is seen as a technological mistake. But it is experiencing a comeback worldwide: According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 51 new nuclear reactors are under construction, 14 in China alone.
Shutting down nuclear power plants “makes it harder to guarantee security of supply and low prices,” warns Gates. “We cannot rule out any solution.” The demand for electricity will increase dramatically across the globe. New, particularly safe and low-waste nuclear reactors could help to solve the climate problem. On the other hand, gas, a central component of the German climate strategy, is questionable as a bridging technology.
A few days before the world climate conference in Glasgow, the dispute over nuclear energy is thus being fueled. After the serious reactor accident in Fukushima, the fate of the technology seemed to be sealed. However, in view of the impending climate catastrophe and rapidly rising energy costs, international thinking has begun.
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This renaissance is also being debated in the EU. France wants to classify nuclear power as “green” and has secured the support of Eastern European countries. Nuclear opponents sound the alarm: “Nuclear energy has inherent risks, the waste problem remains unsolved. Ignoring all of this has nothing to do with realpolitik, ”warns Green Party politician Reinhard Bütikofer.
Proponents of nuclear power are increasingly being heard
Nuclear power? No thank you. The slogan from the 1980s is still valid in Germany today. Indeed, the technology remains highly problematic. The radioactive waste has been emitting radiation for many thousands of years, so far no safe repository has been found either in this country or anywhere else. Nuclear power plants are also expensive and practically uninsurable. Reactor disasters like the one in Chernobyl in 1986 and in Fukushima in 2011 highlighted the enormous risks and sealed the German nuclear phase-out.
But now the mood is turning, even in Europe. The arguments of those in favor of nuclear power are increasingly being heard. Nuclear reactors reliably deliver CO2-free electricity. If Europe wants to become climate neutral by 2050, nuclear reactors appear to be an obvious option.
The current energy bottleneck is also influencing the debate. Expensive natural gas is driving up electricity prices, and the switch to alternative energy sources such as sun and wind is fueling doubts about the reliability of the electricity supply.
A few weeks ago, ten EU member states, led by France, campaigned for nuclear energy. Even the Netherlands, which has long been critical of nuclear power, are considering building nuclear power plants again – a project that is already being implemented in the USA, China and Japan.
USA has mini nuclear power plants built
Bill Gates is an important driver of this technological trend. Terrapower, a company financed by Gates, is building a sodium-cooled rotor shaft reactor together with GE Hitachi in the US state of Wyoming for a billion dollars. The so-called Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is a kind of mini nuclear power plant.
A few months ago, the consortium received $ 160 million from the US Department of Energy to build two reactors with an output of 345 megawatts each over the next five to seven years, about a quarter of the output of a typical German reactor.
More safety, high energy efficiency and less radioactive waste: These are the promises of Terrapower. “We believe sodium will fundamentally change the energy industry,” says Gates. The small reactors are to be set up in a decentralized manner, offer more security and supply electricity when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining.
Despite such innovations, the topic of nuclear power remains taboo in Germany. There is almost no politician who stands up for them. An exception is Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU), who speaks out cautiously, at least in favor of further research in the field.
France is the greatest European advocate
The situation in France is completely different: the French government wants to invest one billion euros in the development of small modular reactors. At the same time, France is at the forefront of the EU countries that are campaigning in Brussels to classify nuclear power as a “green” technology. Paris and Berlin are thus heading for a fundamental conflict.
Because the federal government rejects an eco-label for nuclear energy. Nuclear power is a “high-risk technology” and should therefore not be equated with wind and solar power, explained the outgoing Environment Minister Svenja Schulze in a letter to the commission.
Her counterparts from Luxembourg, Denmark, Spain and Austria joined her. But the opponents of nuclear power could be outvoted in the EU within the next few weeks.
For France, which will take over the European Council Presidency at the turn of the year, the promotion of nuclear technology is a question of sovereignty. “We did not build our country’s energy independence around nuclear power for decades in order to be in the hands of Vladimir Putin,” said Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire recently.
Sharp criticism of the French position comes from the Greens: “If the alternative is either to surrender to Putin or to nuclear power, then it would be a completely different debate,” says MEP Reinhard Bütikofer. But the reality of energy politics is different.
“Because there is the prospect of accelerated expansion of renewable energies,” says Bütikofer. “In terms of costs, nuclear power is far inferior to renewables.”
German study assesses mini-nuclear power plants critically
There is also little inclination in the Union parties to re-lead the nuclear debate or even to question the planned shutdown of the last German nuclear power plants for the coming year. “We haven’t found a solution to the repository problem and new nuclear reactors are not suitable for Europe’s climate target of reducing CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030,” emphasizes Christian Ehler, European politician of the CDU.
The mini-nuclear power plant technology advanced by Gates is also viewed critically in Germany. The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management has commissioned a study from the Öko-Institut, the TU Berlin and the Physikerbüro Bremen.
According to this, the mini-reactors can “show potential safety advantages over large nuclear power plants”. But “many thousands to tens of thousands” reactors would have to be built, which would raise questions about safety, transport, dismantling and final and interim storage.
Above all, the risk of proliferation – use for military or terrorist purposes – would increase with the large number of reactors. Also, contrary to the operator’s insurance, radioactive leaks cannot be ruled out.
The sodium nuclear reactors promoted by Gates are also controversial in the United States. The technology “is a pure waste of time and money,” says Edwin Lyman, physicist and director of nuclear safety at the United Concerned Scientists Foundation.
Lyman is not an environmentalist who rejects nuclear power on principle. He advocates the use of conventional light water nuclear power plants. In his opinion, sodium reactors are not safer or more efficient, but are more expensive and untested.
Almost everyone agrees: To date, too little research has been carried out on SMR technology. Advocates like Gates don’t see this as a disadvantage, they emphasize the opportunities. Nothing has been done for too long, and the old problems of nuclear power can be overcome with new technology.
Terrapower took up an old idea again
As early as the 1950s, the Russian physicist Saveli Feinberg proposed a type of reactor that was also implemented with the “fast breeders” as in Kalkar on the Lower Rhine – until the 1986 Chernobyl accident ended research on it.
Terrapower, founded in 2008, took up the idea and brought “some of the best nuclear physicists and computer modelers together”, as Gates writes in his book “How We Prevent Climate Disaster”.
The team set up a laboratory with supercomputers in Bellevue, Washington State, in order to run digital simulations of various reactor designs. “We believe we have developed a model in which all major problems have been solved,” writes Gates.
Terrapower and the company’s partners are so convinced of their know-how that they decided not to build a prototype. The planned reactor in Wyoming thus resembles an open-heart operation.
So there remain considerable doubts: “Without significantly more focus and commitment, it is unlikely that the technology will be ready for commercial use in the next ten to 15 years,” said Bank Barclays in a study of the technology. In the best case scenario, this can be expected after 2035.
Too late to help deliver on the EU’s climate pledge to cut emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030.
More: EU column: Nuclear power will come back – whether Germany wants it or not