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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
How civil nuclear power is being rehabilitated
25/9/2024
10 min read
Feature
Following Europe’s recent energy security crisis and the expectation of increased industry energy demand, plus the climate emergency, the light is once again shining on civil nuclear power. As a result, some of long-standing barriers to finance have shifted, which might help facilitate newbuild civil nuclear power projects. New Energy World Senior Editor Will Dalrymple reports.
COP28 was something of a highlight for civil nuclear power in the last few years. At last year’s climate summit in Dubai, 22 countries signed an ambitious declaration to triple nuclear power (and renewables generally) by 2050. Three days later, Microsoft published a policy paper contending that the low-carbon electricity generation technology was akin to ‘renewables’ in its eyes.
Since its birth in the 1960s, the civil nuclear power sector has been shunned by some environmentalists because of controversies over the radiation risks of long-term waste and its connections to the nuclear weapons establishment. Its fortunes have also fallen in the aftermath of major nuclear incidents, including Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima Daiichi (2011). But in recent years, some antinuclear organisations have moderated their positions.
The biggest change came in February 2022, when nuclear power (and fossil gas) were added to the European list in the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Taxonomy which guides private-sector investment. At that time, the European Commission said: ‘Taking account of scientific advice and current technological progress, the Commission considers that there is a role for private investment in gas and nuclear activities in the transition.’