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Research*eu. Issue 81, April 2019
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Research*eu. Issue 81, April 2019

Research*eu. Issue 81, April 2019

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Special feature: nuclear power, the underdog of Europe’s energy mix. The word ‘nuclear’ evokes strong emotions and many of these, if we’re being completely honest, are tied up around the notion of nuclear warheads and nuclear conflict. In today’s increasingly unstable world order, citizens are regularly exposed to rolling news coverage about nuclear proliferation issues, a recent example being the failed February summit between the United States and North Korea that took place in Vietnam. Even when moving away from the bomb and thinking about nuclear power as a viable and acceptable component of Europe’s current and future energy mix, opposition to nuclear energy can still be fierce. Of course, probably the incident that remains in the minds of older Europeans is the terrible disaster at Chernobyl in 1986, but the more recent 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan also wasn’t exactly great PR for the nuclear power industry, especially in Europe. In the aftermath of Fukushima, the German government decided to accelerate its plans to close all of its nuclear power stations by 2022, the Italian population voted against the expansion of nuclear power in a referendum and even France, long dependent on nuclear energy to provide up to 75 % of the country’s domestic energy needs, announced it would aim to cut its nuclear output by a third over 20 years. But nuclear power is, and will remain, an important contributor to Europe’s energy mix for the foreseeable future. The EU depends on nuclear power for more than a quarter of its electricity needs, and a higher proportion of base-load power, according to the World Nuclear Association. Importantly for the EU’s ambitious climate goals, nuclear power provides over half of the Union’s low-carbon electricity. Combined with the fact that the EU is the world’s largest energy importer and a large amount of time has been spent in recent years on how to increase its energy independence, through initiatives such as the Energy Union, policymakers cannot afford to overlook the positive benefits that nuclear power can still provide.
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ISSN 2599-7920
Número de catálogo ZZ-AG-19-003-EN-N
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ISSN 2599-7939
Número de catálogo ZZ-AG-19-003-EN-Q
ISSN 2599-7912
Número de catálogo ZZ-AG-19-003-EN-C
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ISSN 2599-7920 ISBN DOI Número de catálogo ZZ-AG-19-003-EN-N
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ISSN 2599-7939 ISBN DOI Número de catálogo ZZ-AG-19-003-EN-Q
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ISSN 2599-7912 ISBN DOI Número de catálogo ZZ-AG-19-003-EN-C
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