Around thirty countries want to boost nuclear energy in the face of climate change
Around thirty countries, including France, Belgium, the United States and China, gathered in Brussels on Thursday March 21 for the very first international summit on nuclear power, at the call of the International Energy Agency nuclear power (IAEA) and Belgium. This is with the aim of tripling nuclear electricity production capacities by 2050. Countries have affirmed their vision of nuclear energy as an essential energy to achieve climate objectives.
Participants pose for a family photo in front of the Atomium during the IAEA Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 21, 2024. © Yves Herman / Reuters
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With our special correspondent in Brussels,
Justine Fontaine
At
the end of the summit
, no sensational announcement for the participants, nuclear power is
part of the solution to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions for the summit participants. This is despite the accident at the Fukushima power plant in Japan in 2011, and despite also the fears around the
Zaporizhia power plant in Ukraine
. They believe that lessons have been learned from past accidents.
For Europeans, it is also about depending less on Russian gas and oil. This meeting in Brussels symbolizes the return to favor of the atom on the international scene. This is under the leadership of Paris in particular, which obtained after long negotiations for nuclear power to be
included by the European Union among the transition energies
, alongside renewables such as solar and wind power.
Problem: to build new reactors, you need a lot of money. Not to mention that the bills for new generation reactor sites have exploded, as in France. The participants are therefore looking for new financing avenues, and are calling for the World Bank or the European Investment Bank (EIB) to be able to grant loans to countries wishing to build reactors.
The idea does not please anti-nuclear activists, who demonstrated this Thursday outside the exhibition center to demand that the money intended for the transition be directed only towards renewable energies.
Defending small modular reactors
Among the possible projects, participants took the opportunity to defend small modular reactors. They are currently struggling to demonstrate their effectiveness and profitability.
Many start-ups are working to develop these new reactors, which could be manufactured on an assembly line, then supported, for example, by very energy-intensive factories. But several projects have had to be abandoned recently due to lack of sufficient funding.
Nothing to doubt French President Emmanuel Macron, who defends this type of reactor: “
We are at a moment of innovation, so when we innovate, we have to find technological maturity and an economic model. This is completely normal and therefore we will continue to invest and innovate.
»
Projects not yet tested on an industrial scale can put investors off, recognizes Chris Levesque, boss of Terrapower, which plans to launch a small modular reactor by 2030. But he doesn't have this problem, he says, because the company is led by Bill Gates and has also won $2 billion in American subsidies:
“
We will submit our permit application to the American nuclear safety authority next week! We will be the first plant of this type built in the United States.
»
This with the ambition then to export these reactors. The prospect worries anti-nuclear people: for them this increases waste and the risk of accidents. Opponents of these projects are also concerned about the risk of nuclear proliferation.
01:14
Summit participants want to push towards the development of small modular reactors
Justine Fontaine
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