Magazine / Current / Nuclear energy / Article | 30/07/2008

Yes to nuclear energy

Calls to expand the use of nuclear energy as a means of avoiding dependence on oil and gas supplies from abroad and a price dictatorship are growing louder in Europe. What do the advocates of nuclear power plants want?

One of the main sources of concern for Europeans at present is securing the old continent's energy supplies for the future. Up to now Russia has been a key supplier of oil and gas, but relations between Europe and Russia are fragile. In early July, for instance, Moscow drastically cut its oil supplies to the Czech Republic.

Photo: lostinstyle (Photocase)

In Prague - and elsewhere - this was interpreted as a warning from Russia. The move came after the Czech Republic had agreed to allow the US to build its missile defence shield - which Russia has harshly condemned - on Czech soil. Heavy dependence on Russian raw materials could thus prove to be a sword of Damocles. One solution to the problem would be to expand nuclear power.

Reducing greenhouse gases

Despite the Chernobyl disaster, certain European countries, first and foremost France, never stopped relying on uranium as a source of energy. And in view of soaring oil and gas prices the revival of nuclear energy does seem worthwhile. Moreover, unlike fossil fuels nuclear power plants do not change the climate. That alone is an adequate argument in their favour.
To prevent climate change from destroying mankind the leaders of the G8 decided at their most recent summit meeting in Japan to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. The target is for each of the Earth's inhabitants to be producing no more than two tons of carbon dioxide per year by then. That is 20 percent of what the average German, for example, currently produces. There is still hope for alternative energy, but it will not be sufficient to fill the gaps, and the potential of energy saving is equally limited.

Part of the solution

Only nuclear energy, which had practically been declared dead, seems to offer a solution. The nuclear power plant lobby is certainly jubilant at the moment, but it is also most acutely aware of the problems regarding safety and the disposal of nuclear waste. For this reason its message sounds carefully formulated: "Nuclear energy is no universal cure; just part of the solution," writes the Deutsches Atomforum, a registered association that advocates a nuclear power revival in Germany.


439 reactors worldwide

At the end of 2007 a total of 439 nuclear power plants were producing energy worldwide. In France alone they generate 80 percent of the country's electricity. The sector provides 100,000 jobs so it's no wonder that even the left-wing parties and the trade unions are pro-atomic energy. President Sarkozy talks of an "industry of the future.” He has just announced the construction of the country's 61st reactor.
Britain wants to add ten new reactors to its network by 2020. Up to 40 percent of its energy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said, is to be generated using nuclear technology. Yet in the 1990s a government commission had already stressed that nuclear energy was "morally indefensible" as long as a solution for the disposal of [nuclear] waste had not been found. But that's yesterday's news now.

Doubts about phasing-out

The situation is different in Germany. By 2023 all 17 nuclear power plants are to be shut down. They currently provide a quarter of the country's electricity and around half of the power that needs to be available around the clock. But the doubts about phasing out nuclear power are gaining force. So far there has been no talk about building new reactors but there has been discussion about extending the operational life spans of existing plants. 48 percent of Germans would welcome such a move, and that number is growing.
The Czechs are much more open-minded about nuclear power. There are brand new plans to massively increase the capacity of their Temelin power plant, located approximately 100 kilometres from the Austrian and German borders. Four new reactors are to be added to the current two in operation, and this despite the fact that even in its present form Temelin is already a thorn in the side of nuclear power-free Austria.
Meanwhile Slovakia is trying to get round its legal obligation to the EU to close down its Russian-style Bohunice power plant by the end of this year. Prime Minister Robert Fico said at an energy forum in Prague in May that the closure was "unacceptable." Bulgaria was forced to close down four of its six Soviet-era pressurised water reactors in Kozloduy as a prerequisite for EU membership. Now, however, Sofia wants to either reactivate two of the reactors or build two new ones.

An unstoppable trend

The list could go on indefinitely, particularly when it comes to countries outside Europe. China and India, and also Russia are all planning major expansions of their atomic energy programmes. And the US presidential candidate for the Republicans John McCain recently called for no less than 100 new reactors. It should be noted that the US has not built a single reactor in three decades. The trend towards nuclear energy seems unstoppable, even if incidents like the most recent one in France make people nervous. In view of the numerous pressures mentioned above a return to nuclear power seems inevitable for Europe.

Hans-Jörg Schmidt

Hans-Jörg Schmidt was born in 1953 in Halle (Saale). He works as a eurotopics correspondent in Prague and writes for German newspapers, including Die Welt.
» to author index

Further articles on the subject » Energy Policy, » Europe
More from the press review on the subject » Energy Policy, » Europe