Europe nuclear plants ‘need 500 bn euro investment by 2050’: EU commissioner

France has led the charge for nuclear power—its main energy supply—to be included as a sustainable option.

The European Union will need to invest 500 billion euros ($568 billion) in new generation nuclear power stations from now until 2050, the bloc’s internal market commissioner said in an interview published at the weekend.

“Existing nuclear plants alone will need 50 billion euros of investment from now until 2030. And new generation ones will need 500 billion!” Thierry Breton told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

Breton also argued that an EU plan to label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as “green” sources for investment was a vital step towards attracting that capital.

The EU is consulting its member states on that proposal, with internal disagreement on whether the power sources truly qualify as sustainable options.

France has led the charge for nuclear power—its main energy supply—to be included, despite robust opposition from Austria and scepticism from Germany, which is in the process of shutting all its nuclear plants.

The proposal says the EU Commission “considers there is a role for natural gas and nuclear as a means to facilitate the transition towards a predominantly renewable-based future”.

Currently the bloc gets 26 percent of its energy from nuclear power, but Breton estimated that by 2050, that would be reduced to around 15 percent.

The proposal also states that for nuclear power, appropriate measures should be put in place for radioactive waste management and disposal.

And it calls for the building of new nuclear power plants to be conditioned on permits given out before 2045, while work to extend the functioning of existing plants would need to be authorised before 2040.


France, Germany ‘agree to disagree’ on nuclear power


© 2022 AFP

Citation:
Europe nuclear plants ‘need 500 bn euro investment by 2050’: EU commissioner (2022, January 9)
retrieved 9 January 2022
from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-01-europe-nuclear-bn-euro-investment.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.


Speak Your Mind

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Get in Touch

350FansLike
100FollowersFollow
281FollowersFollow
150FollowersFollow

Recommend for You

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Subscribe and receive our weekly newsletter packed with awesome articles that really matters to you!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

You might also like

Dishing out the authentic

“I’ve always been a bit of a social media pariah,” says chef Manu Chandra...

Music: And, it’s a rap with these three unsung...

Think Indian rap and, of course, you think of young women and men telling...

Beyond qubits: Next big step to scale up quantum...

Scientists and engineers at the University of Sydney and Microsoft Corporation have opened the...