Nuclear energy finds support across EU Parliament groups

Nuclear power is essential to cutting European carbon dioxide emissions, members of the European Parliament from across the political spectrum said at a March 19 Brussels event on nuclear energy.

Center-right, center-left, liberal, and conservative party members questioned EU plans to tackle climate change through the deployment of renewable energy only.

"The last few years have shown we cannot rely only on renewables for stable power," said Tsvetelina Penkova of the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. Nuclear power is needed to provide "baseload" electricity, she told the event, hosted by MEPs and filmmaker Oliver Stone, who also presented his 2022 documentary Nuclear Now.

"Nuclear [energy] is the only source of carbon-free, controllable energy we have," said Dominique Riquet of the liberal Renew party. She added that the inclusion of some nuclear power investments in an EU sustainable energy taxonomy in 2022 had been "a victory, but the fight is not over." Europe now needs to explain why renewable energy on its own will not bring emissions down far enough, according to Riquet. The taxonomy is a set of voluntary guidelines to help companies identify "sustainable" investments in the 27 EU member states.

Cross-party support for nuclear energy at the March 19 event is the latest indication that nuclear power is seen as important by EU regulators and politicians, who have for many years refused to encourage investments in nuclear energy, while approving EU targets and national subsidies for the use of renewable energy.

EU governments in 2023 put advanced nuclear energy technologies on a list of clean energy investment projects eligible for simpler and faster permitting procedures across all 27 EU member states. Also in December, the EU parliament adopted a report in favor of developing small modular reactors, by a majority of 409 to 173. The European Commission said SMRs should be connected to the European electricity grid by 2030 to bring down greenhouse gas emissions across Europe.

Franc Bogovic of the center-right European People's Party said the "lower carbon footprint" and emissions of France, compared with Germany, clearly illustrated the need for a changed approach to nuclear power.

France gets about 70% of its power from nuclear energy, while Germany has permanently closed all its reactors. French carbon dioxide emissions per capita are about half of Germany's.

However, France missed its 2020 renewable energy output target and faces the risk of legal action from the European Commission if it does not set and meet a high 2030 target. Bogovic said after parliamentary elections this year the EU should replace renewable energy targets with a "low-carbon energy" target, including nuclear power.

"It's very important that we make this political breakthrough," he said. This should include "mobilizing industry" to increase production of nuclear energy in Europe.

Rob Roos of the European Conservatives and Reformists group said France had "successfully phased out" fossil fuel energy production, by increasing its use of nuclear energy. France generates less than 10% of its electricity from fossil fuels and has banned the production and exploration of oil and natural gas on French soil by 2040.

Since the last European Parliament elections in 2019, "things have changed. Interest in nuclear energy is growing," Roos said.

Jan Panek, a director for nuclear energy in the European Commission energy department, said at the event that Europe was "still not doing enough" in the fight against climate change. "We need to enlist all the low-carbon energy sources we have."

He said standardization of reactor designs, particularly for SMRs, "could help" with the roll out of greater nuclear capacity, but that Europe would also need "streamlined, accelerated licensing" regimes.

Green ideological opposition

The EPP is the largest party in the European Parliament, with 178 seats. Together, the four parties represented on March 19 hold 488 of parliament's 705 seats.

Only the Greens, plus far right Identity and Democracy, far left GUE/NGL, and independent parliamentarians, were not represented at the March 19 event.

Penkova said previous parliamentary opposition to nuclear energy, including in her own Socialists and Democrats party, had been based on "ideology, not logic." Although the December SMR report was adopted in parliament by a large majority, the S&D group was split, with less than half of the socialist members voting in favor. The Green Party is united in opposition to nuclear energy.

European Parliament elections, being held across the EU between June 6 and 9, are expected to see the Green party lose some of its 71 seats, as voters move against climate policies perceived to be pushing up the cost of living across EU member states.

The Green party manifesto for the elections says, "nuclear energy cannot be labelled as clean," adding that Europe needs "an energy system for all, based fully on renewables" and that nuclear energy should be removed from the taxonomy.

Environmental group Greenpeace March 21 protested outside a Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Belgian government. A statement published by Greenpeace at the protest said, "nuclear power has consistently failed to live up to the hype of its industry and political backers."

Instead of supporting a nuclear energy "fairytale," Greenpeace said, "governments can achieve their climate and energy goals with energy savings and renewable energy."