Nuclear Energy Having Global Revival 40 Years After Chernobyl

Berlin : The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine increased global fears about nuclear energy and slowed its development in Europe and elsewhere. But forty years later, there is a worldwide revival; A trend that gained great momentum with the war in the Middle East.

More than 400 nuclear reactors are in operation in 31 countries, and approximately 70 of them are under construction. Nuclear energy produces approximately 10% of the world’s electricity; This corresponds to approximately a quarter of all low-carbon energy sources.

Nuclear reactors have seen steady improvements, with more safety features added and becoming cheaper to build and operate.

Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, said that Chernobyl and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 reduced the interest in such energy sources, but it was clear that a revival was possible years ago.

“I’m 100% sure that nuclear will come back with the war in the Middle East,” he added.

“It is seen as a safe electricity generation system, and we will see that the return of nuclear will be very strong, both in America, Europe and Asia,” Birol told The Associated Press. he said.

The United States is the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy, with 94 operational reactors accounting for approximately 30% of global nuclear electricity production. And efforts are increasing to develop nuclear energy capacity, with a goal of quadrupling it by 2050.

“The world cannot power its industries, meet the demands of artificial intelligence, or secure its energy future without nuclear power,” US Under Secretary of State Thomas DiNanno said last month.

China operates 61 nuclear reactors and leads the world in building new units, with the goal of overtaking the United States and becoming the world leader in nuclear capacity; approximately 40 of them are under construction.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged Europe’s “strategic mistake” in cutting nuclear power and outlined new initiatives to encourage the construction of power plants.

Russia, meanwhile, has taken a strong lead in exporting its nuclear know-how, building 20 reactors around the world.

Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986, while Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. The accident contaminated nearby areas and spread radiation across Europe.

Ukraine still relies on nuclear power plants to produce about half of its electricity. These facilities played a vital role after Russia sent troops to Ukraine in 2022.

Moscow forces seized Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and Kiev accused Russia of carrying out a drone attack on the protective containment structure covering the damaged Chernobyl reactor.

Japan has restarted 15 reactors after reviewing lessons learned from the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima power plant, and 10 more are in the process of receiving approval to restart.

Although South Africa has the only nuclear power plant on the African continent, Russia is building one in Egypt and several other African countries are also exploring the technology.

“The momentum we see today is the result of growing awareness that reliable, low-carbon electricity will be required to meet the world’s growing energy demand,” said Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Europe sought to wean itself off Russian energy after the Ukraine conflict, but the war in the Middle East has underlined Europe’s dependence on hydrocarbons.

The European Commission has changed its perception of nuclear energy and sees it as part of clean energy, alongside wind and solar energy, to achieve climate goals.

In 1990, nuclear power accounted for about a third of Europe’s electricity; it is currently only around 15%, and von der Leyen admits her dependence on imported fossil fuels puts her at a disadvantage.

“I believe it is a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a reliable, affordable low-emission energy source,” he said recently. “We are seeing a global resurgence in nuclear energy in recent years. And Europe wants to be a part of it.”

The EU is considering the development of Small Modular Reactors. The reactors, which are expected to be operational in the early 2030s, appear to be cheaper, faster to build and more flexible than conventional reactors.

France and several other EU members, including Sweden and Finland, are pioneering nuclear energy. On the other hand, Germany, Austria and Italy are among the EU members that ban the use of this substance.

In a major change in policy last year, Belgium repealed a law requiring the closure and extension of the life of its reactors. Spain, meanwhile, plans to phase out its nuclear capacity and shut down its seven operational reactors between 2027 and 2035.

France, which has 57 reactors in 19 facilities, provides approximately 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy.

Successive governments, undeterred by the Chernobyl disaster, have promoted nuclear power at the core of France’s energy independence. In 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to build six new pressurized water reactors, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting the transition to low-carbon energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the gas supply crisis triggered by the conflict in Ukraine, “has exposed the limits of renewable electricity deployment and Europe’s dependence on gas,” said Nicolas Goldberg, partner at Paris-based Columbus Consulting.

“Therefore, France has strengthened its strategy to preserve its existing nuclear power plants, which means extending their life as much as possible,” he said.

Decades of anti-nuclear protests in Germany, fueled by past accidents, have pressured successive governments to stop using a technology critics see as unsafe and unsustainable. Germany will shut down its last three nuclear reactors in 2023, the final step in plans drawn up over two decades by governments of various political persuasions.

Despite recent talk among some in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-right bloc of being open to the next generation of small modular reactors, a significant nuclear revival in Europe’s largest economy still appears a distant prospect.

“The decision is irreversible; I regret it, but that’s the way it is,” Merz said, noting that the plant operators’ “consistent answer has been: ‘We’ve gone too far with the demolition.'”

Russia has aggressively expanded its nuclear energy capacity both domestically and abroad.

It has 34 operational reactors, including eight Chernobyl-type RBMK reactors, known as light water graphite reactors, which account for about a quarter of all nuclear energy production. They saw extensive modernizations that added safety features to correct the inherent design flaw combined with human error that triggered the Chernobyl disaster.

Major projects under construction include new units at the Kursk, Leningrad and Smolensk facilities, a possible facility in the Far East and possible floating nuclear units.

Russia is also building 20 reactors in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East and has signed contracts to start construction in several other countries.

Russia has built the first nuclear reactor for its neighboring ally Belarus, where a third of its territory was contaminated by the Chernobyl accident.

“Belarusian authorities are using the changing context and the so-called nuclear renaissance to claim that we are acting like everyone else in the world, instead of solving the problems of Belarusians in contaminated areas,” said Irina Sukhiy, founder of the Belarusian ecological group Green Network.