Reactor for the European Union

Nuclear energy is coming back before it left

The 14th annual energy conference, held under the auspices of the Handelsblatt newspaper, which ended yesterday in Berlin, outlined two primary goals for the industry in Europe. The European Union, on the one hand, must become more independent from individual suppliers of hydrocarbon energy resources. On the other hand, the region must make an even greater contribution to climate protection. It is possible to solve these two problems in practice through the development of nuclear energy. In this regard, in Germany and Brussels they are more often talking about slowing down the timing of a complete exit from nuclear energy, or even completely canceling the decision to curtail this industry.

The legally formalized decision on Germany’s complete renunciation of peaceful nuclear energy within 35 years was made under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is a nuclear physicist by training, however, began to make strong arguments in favor of abandoning the premature shutdown of nuclear power plants and stopping the construction of new power units. The cessation of gas and oil supplies during Russia's energy disputes with Ukraine and Belarus played into the hands of supporters of nuclear energy. And sociological surveys conducted in Germany by authoritative independent institutions indicate that the population is quite pragmatic regarding the prospects for generating nuclear electricity: 61% of Germans believe that it is impossible to abandon nuclear power plants until a balanced and a reliably imported range of energy supplies. Walter Holenfelder, member of the board of directors of E.ON Energie, spoke about this yesterday at the Handelsblatt energy conference. Producing electricity at nuclear power plants saves the environment, he stated; in Germany alone, thanks to the operation of nuclear power units, it is possible to avoid the release of 150 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is the amount of greenhouse gases produced by all cars and trucks in Germany.

Therefore, abandoning nuclear energy would impose a colossal investment bill on the German economy. By 2020, as Mr. Holenfelder noted, power plants operating on fossil fuels will exhaust their resources; their capacity is 20 thousand MW - this is 40% of the country's total energy capacity. To simultaneously shut down the power units of German nuclear power plants, which have been operating for only 25 years, is, in his words, “unjustifiably early”: “In international practice, their operating life reaches 60-65 years,” says Mr. Holenfelder.

Thus, he summarizes, ambitious plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40% by 2020 without the use of nuclear energy are not feasible. “The sources of raw materials for the next 200 years are sufficient and distributed throughout the world. The main ones are in stable Australia and Canada, Mr. Holenfelder said. “It’s time for politicians to end the ‘veil dance’ around nuclear energy and imagine the sad reality in the event of a complete abandonment of it.”

German and European politicians seem to be already changing their attitude towards peaceful nuclear energy. When German Economics Minister Michael Glos was asked at a conference about his attitude to this problem, he said: “Judging by the way public opinion is shaping up in favor of maintaining, and perhaps further developing, nuclear energy in Germany, the laws currently in force regarding it , most likely, not so soon, but will still be changed.” The minister is convinced that both the environment and “new challenges to energy security” require this.

Top Brussels officials also agree with the position of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs called uranium fuel “the most important low-carbon source of energy available to the EU” at the Handelsblatt conference. “Each EU state has its own views when it comes to nuclear energy,” he explained. -- However, if the share of electricity generated in the EU from nuclear power plants decreases, it must be compensated by using other low-carbon energy sources. Otherwise, achieving greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets will be twice as difficult.”

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin