The world is in an energy crisis. Security of supply has moved to the center of the debate. Governments from Germany to the UK are announcing that they will allow their nuclear power plants to run longer. In Switzerland, bourgeois circles started an initiative to lift the ban on building nuclear power plants. Is nuclear energy experiencing a renaissance?
Not when it comes to raw numbers. The share of nuclear power in global electricity generation fell to 9.8 percent between mid-2021 and mid-2022. This is the lowest level in the last forty years. In 1985 it was still 15 percent. Wind and solar energy account for more than ten percent for the first time. They have passed nuclear energy. This is illustrated by the World Nuclear Industry Report 2022, a comprehensive statistical report by international experts.
Last year, 411 reactors in 33 countries produced 2,653 terawatt hours of electricity. Although their production is increasing, their share in total production is gradually decreasing. Six reactors have been opened and eight disabled in the last twelve months.
Only one European nuclear power plant has been commissioned in ten years
“It’s a fairy tale that the whole world is now building nuclear power plants,” says Fabian Lüscher, 33, head of nuclear energy at the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES). “The trend is going in the opposite direction.”
According to Lüscher, statements made by politicians should be approached with caution. “Governments are under pressure. The promise of nuclear power is tempting because we are talking about large-scale power plants.” In fact, only one nuclear power plant in Europe has been connected to the grid in Finland over the past decade.
However, there is little talk about the end of the atomic age. 50 new plants have been commissioned in China in the last 20 years. None were closed. There is hardly any economic reason behind this: From 2009 to 2020, the cost of nuclear power increased by 36 percent. In the same period, solar energy became 90 percent cheaper.
Nuclear power plants are a risk, not a cure
But nuclear energy cannot be used only for civilian purposes. Today, 83 percent of reactors are built by nuclear-armed states. French President Emmanuel Macron (44) openly named the connection a year ago: “No military nuclear power without civil nuclear power, no civilian nuclear power without military nuclear power.”
And security of supply? Half of France’s nuclear park is currently flat. Operators expect unplanned production losses of at least 60 terawatt hours. This corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of Switzerland, which was also affected by Macron’s nuclear power plant fiasco. Because it imports a lot of juice from power plants in the neighboring country in winter.
“Nuclear plants are not the answer,” says Fabian Lüscher of the Energy Foundation. “They are the real risk. Nothing illustrates this more impressively than the situation in France right now.”