France and ten EU states unite to defend nuclear energy

"Nuclear energy is one of many tools to achieve our climate goals, generate baseload electricity and ensure security of supply," these countries say in a joint statement signed on the sidelines of the meeting. a meeting of European energy ministers in Stockholm.

The 11 States (France, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) agree to "support new" nuclear projects, based in particular "on innovative technologies" as well than "the operation of existing power stations".

The text provides for joint training projects, "opportunities for increased scientific cooperation" and the "coordinated deployment of best practices in security".

The office of the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, had announced before the meeting the objective of "creating a nuclear alliance (...) and sending a strong signal in the various European negotiations".

Paris had already won a victory in mid-February with the European Commission's proposal to consider as "green" hydrogen produced from an electricity mix including nuclear, under certain conditions.

From now on, France defends the taking into account of this "low carbon hydrogen" in a text under discussion setting renewable hydrogen targets for each European state in industry or transport. Several states, including Germany and Spain, are totally opposed to it.

As part of a reform of the European electricity market, France also advocates long-term contracts at guaranteed prices, including for the benefit of nuclear production, which Berlin refuses.

"Stable" energy

"Nuclear represents 25% of our European electricity production, emits less carbon than wind power and photovoltaics", Ms. Pannier-Runacher insisted on Monday, seeing it as a "complementary" tool to renewables "to achieve carbon neutrality" aimed at by the EU in 2050. "We must join forces" to innovate and "develop new facilities", she pleaded.

"The United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, China, India and even Japan are considering nuclear as an important means of decarbonizing their economy. We must be on a level playing field," she stressed.

Poland, which is betting on nuclear power to disengage from coal, and the Czech Republic had welcomed this "alliance" project on Monday, even if this term was not retained in the final declaration.

"Renewables can be unstable. You need a stable and sustainable, low-carbon energy: we only know one, nuclear," observed Czech Minister Jozef Sikela.

The eleven signatory countries are the same ones who supported at the end of 2021 the recognition of the "sustainable" nature of nuclear energy, energy that does not emit CO2, in the European "taxonomy", a green labeling making it possible to facilitate certain investments. They had won their case in the text finally adopted in mid-2022, to the chagrin of anti-nuclear groups.

Sweden, whose current government is pro-nuclear, did not sign Tuesday's declaration, being forced into neutrality during its six-month EU Council presidency. However, she was accommodating. "We respect the fact that the States will choose different solutions for their transition, the essential goal being to do without fossil fuels", insisted Minister Ebba Busch.

France's initiative comes at a time when the German energy model, based on cheap gas imports, is being undermined by the war in Ukraine and EU efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Berlin's hostility to the atom is shared in particular by Austria and Luxembourg.

"To win the race against climate change, we have to be fast. New nuclear power plants take 15 years to build, two to three times more expensive than wind and solar. It's ideology, not pragmatism,” Luxembourg Minister Claude Turmes said on Monday.

“We must focus on the solutions that are available, cheap, without adverse effects, without danger: renewable energies,” added Austrian Minister Leonore Gewessler.