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The EU cannot decide if nuclear power is a clean power.

 

Nuclear plant
The EU remains dead­locked over whether to recog­nise nuc­lear power as equal to renew­able energy, as France and Ger­many sparred at a sum­mit yes­ter­day.

French pres­id­ent Emmanuel Mac­ron told journ­al­ists after a meet­ing with Ger­man chan­cel­lor Olaf Scholz that he was hope­ful of find­ing an agree­ment with Ger­many, which is one of the sev­eral coun­tries oppos­ing French efforts to have nuc­lear recog­nised as a low-car­bon energy source.

But no accord was reached.

Ger­many is not opposed to the use of nuc­lear in the pro­duc­tion of hydro­gen, which was the topic of a joint declar­a­tion with French min­is­ters on Janu­ary 22. But Ber­lin is not will­ing to treat nuc­lear energy as equi­val­ent to renew­ables such as wind or solar, which would give it priv­ileged access to EU fund­ing.

Ursula von der Leyen, European Com­mis­sion pres­id­ent, said on Thursday that nuc­lear could «play a role» in Europe’s decar­bon­ising effort, adding that only «cut­ting edge» nuc­lear tech­no­logy might get access to sim­pli­fied rules and incent­ives in the EU’s recently launched draft Net Zero Industry Act. In France’s camp, Pol­ish prime min­is­ter Mateusz Mor­awiecki said nuc­lear power should be eli­gible for EU fin­an­cing. Nuc­lear energy «abso­lutely should be given the same status as we do not have tech­no­logy to store energy from renew­ables».

Warsaw last year dis­cussed part­ner­ing with the US and France to develop nuc­lear power in Poland in line with its plans to com­mis­sion its first nuc­lear plant in 2033.

Mor­awiecki slammed the EU’s efforts to decar­bon­ise its eco­nomy, however, say­ing the bloc should slow its efforts to reach net zero emis­sions in line with coun­tries such as Rus­sia and China.

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Comments

  1. Nuclear power, in its current form, can't be equal to renewable energy no matter what some may say. If it's improved, maybe. Right now we should focus on increasing production of renewable energy at a steady pace, reliable pace. And we must also realize that we will most likely need nuclear power for at least 10 years.

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    1. If we constantly bash nuclear power and consider it the root of all evil we won't get anywhere. So I agree, let's invest in renewable energy and turn it into our main energy source, but do it over time, not in 1 year. Let's build something good, that will last. And yes, we still need nuclear power for the time being.

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