Europe is in the midst of a chaotic nuclear slowdown

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European attitudes towards nuclear power are divided between proponents and opponents, with each country having its own take on the technology. Raphael Hanoteaux, senior policy adviser at European climate change think tank E3G, said France is by far the continent’s largest supplier of nuclear power and wants to export its technology to the rest of Europe.The Hungarian government, eager to ensure a stable domestic energy supply, also signed Russian-funded deal Two nuclear reactors are to be built in addition to the country’s four existing nuclear reactors.The Czech Republic government also plans to At least two new nuclear reactors, while the Polish government wants to build the country’s first nuclear reactor to wean itself off its heavy reliance on coal.

But even countries keen on nuclear power are experiencing trouble with aging reactors and delays in construction plans. By the end of 2021, 17 out of 56 in France Nuclear reactors have been suspended due to planned maintenance or technical problems, forcing the country, often a net exporter of electricity, to buy from neighboring countries. In Britain, nuclear power production fell last year to its lowest level since 1981 due to decommissioning and outages at ageing nuclear plants, according to an analysis. Introduction to Carbon. The shortfall in nuclear power generation in the UK is made up by electricity from gas-fired power plants and electricity imported from Europe.

The problem is that not enough new nuclear reactors are being built to fill those gaps. And those products that are about to go live are not being built fast enough. Britain is set to retire its six nuclear reactors by 2030, but there is currently only one power plant under construction: two reactor facilities in Somerset. The UK government wants to secure another deal for the same plant at a site in Suffolk. But even if approved, the two plants combined would only match the existing capacity of the UK’s nuclear fleet.Meanwhile, France’s newest nuclear reactor was due to be commissioned in Normandy in 2013, but frequent delays have led to its Opening dates back to 2023.

These long timescales mean that building new nuclear plants may not be the best way for countries to decarbonize quickly. The UK and Germany have both set targets to stop using fossil fuels to generate electricity by 2035, too short a time frame to add a lot of nuclear power. “You can’t build a nuclear power plant in that time frame,” said Dries Acke, director of energy systems at the European Climate Foundation think tank.

While construction of new plants has been slow, wind and solar have been deployed faster than expected. “The reality is that renewables dominate deployments in the EU,” said Anthony Frogart, deputy director of the Environment and Society program at Chatham House and co-author of the joint research report. Annual report critical of nuclear power industry. In 2000, nuclear power generation in the EU was 860 TWh, but in 2020 it has dropped to 685 TWh. During the same period, wind power generation alone increased from 21 TWh to 396 TWh. At the same time, the cost of renewable energy has dropped significantly compared to nuclear power.

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