Reactors ‘can support’ bloc’s 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction goals Yves Desbazeille spoke at the Nuclear Europe 2021 online event held from Brussels. Image courtesy Foratom. More effort should be made by European policymakers to help preserve existing commercial nuclear fleets for as long as technical and safety conditions can be met, according to Yves Desbazeille, director-general of Brussels-based nuclear industry group Foratom.

Mr Desbazeille said during an online conference organised by Foratom that the group’s analysis has shown that long-term operation of nuclear plants can support “most of the efforts” needed for the EU to reach its 55% greenhouse gas emission reduction goals by 2030.

Foratom data shows that there are 107 reactors in commercial operation in Europe, including four in Switzerland, but excluding the UK fleet of 13 reactor units (without Dungeness B).

According to Mr Desbazeille, EU member states are at risk of facing several hurdles on the way to decarbonise their economies up to 2050.

There is a risk of relying too much on emerging technologies which have yet to prove their scalability at a reasonable cost and within a reasonable timeframe, he said, adding that these technologies’ potential environmental impact might still need to be properly and fully assessed.

Mr Desbazeille also said that countries risk becoming trapped in new dependencies on “massive amounts” of raw materials and rare minerals, which need to be imported from outside the EU.

He said that this sort of “locking effect” could apply to transitional energy sources like natural gas.

The European nuclear industry would need a stable investment environment to be able maintain the role of nuclear power among the EU’s low-carbon energy sources, Mr Desbazeille said.

“We need to invest in innovation, R&D, new designs, new project to be able to prepare for the next generation [of nuclear technologies] to take over”, he said.

Foratom has been calling on Brussels policymakers to include nuclear power as a sustainable energy source in the green finance taxonomy, a package of regulations that governs investment in activities that the EU says are environmentally friendly.

The European Joint Research Centre, the EU’s scientific expert arm, concluded in April that nuclear qualifies as sustainable and does no more harm to human health or to the environment than other electricity production technologies already included in the bloc’s taxonomy.

However, the European Commission decided it will include nuclear power in the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy under a complimentary delegated act, expected by the end of 2021, which will confirm the energy source is as sustainable.