Nuclear power in the European Union
The countries with reactors are: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
[3] The United Kingdom (a former member of the European Union with interconnected electricity links with the EU) also operates nuclear reactors.
[6] Stress tests were developed within the EU in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, with the goal of making all 132 operating European reactors follow the same safety standards and have the same safety level for a range of possible catastrophic events (e.g. earthquake, flooding or plane crash).
[7]: 8 The EU-27 in 2005 satisfied its primary energy consumption with 36.7% oil, 24.6% gas, 17.7% coal, 14.2% nuclear, 6.7% renewables and 0.1% industrial waste.
Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Poland and Portugal did not produce any nuclear energy.
Corrosion in several French nuclear reactors, even the most modern type N4, led to long term shutdowns since October 2021.
[15][16] On 6 July 2022, Paris announced that it will nationalise the Électricité de France (EDF) power utility as a result of the escalating energy crisis on the European continent.
In case of a radiological emergency, the EU will trigger its ECURIE alert system, which immediately notifies all national authorities of an impending nuclear hazard.
The commission's SET plan mentions the "sustainable nuclear fission initiative" to develop Generation IV reactors as one of the research priorities of the European Union.
[26] EU member states Austria, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovenia are working since January 2009 together in the European Repository Development Organisation (ERDO) to address common issues on nuclear waste storage.
[27] ERDO was working early 2010 on a plan to store European nuclear waste somewhere in eastern Europe.
Most Member States store spent fuel and other highly radioactive wastes in above-ground storage facilities that need continuous maintenance and oversight and are at risk of accidents, such as airplane crashes, fires or earthquakes.
"[29] On 19 July 2011, the European Commission adopted a Directive for regulating and handling nuclear waste in the EU.
"[30] The MAX project (2011 to August 2014), funded partly with an almost €3 million European Commission contribution,[31] embodied working on transmuting the waste into less toxic shorter-lived elements.
At the time of the accession to the EU, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia agreed to shut down reactors at the sites of Kozloduy, Ignalina and Bohunice respectively: these programs are currently under way.
[34] Other decommissioning activities are under way for older reactors, phased out for political reasons (e.g. Italy, Germany) or simply because they reached their end-of-life (e.g. United Kingdom).
France had the largest shortfall with only 23 billion euros of earmarked assets to cover 74 billion euros of expected costs, while a stress test carried out by Germany's Economy Ministry late last year showed the provisions made by the country's utilities – E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall [VATN.UL] – were adequate.
[36] Advanced new reactors under construction in Finland and France, which were meant to lead a nuclear renaissance, have been delayed and are running over-budget.
[39] Along with companies and trade organisations like Foratom, General Electric, Hitachi, and Toshiba are all partners in the European Nuclear Industry.
[45] Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Germany has permanently shut down eight of its reactors and pledged to close the rest by 2022;[46] but difficulties, costs and subsequent critics of planned energy transition could potentially harm this policy.
[47][48] Italy voted twice, in 1987 to make more difficult to build new plants (the vote was extensively interpreted by following governments as a total repeal of nuclear power plants, leading to the sudden shut down of all Italian operating reactors within few years), and in 2011 to keep their country non-nuclear.
The transition is tending more towards polluting fossil fuel plants than clean renewable energies, sparking several critics.
