KICK NUCLEAR April 2023

Monthly newsletter of the Kick Nuclear group.

GERMANY ENDS NUCLEAR POWER

On 15th April 2023 Germany shut down for good its last three operating civil nuclear power stations. They had previously been due to shut down by the end of 2022; however, in the face of energy shortages threatened by Russia reducing energy supplies to Europe (in retaliation for European countries imposing sanctions on Russia because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), Germany decided to extend the operation of the three until the spring.

This all represents a big change in Germany’s energy policies. In 2003, there were 17 civil nuclear reactors operating in Germany, producing about 25% of the country’s electricity. In that year, however, the government announced a phase-out of civil nuclear power, with all 17 existing stations to be closed down by 2022. Though subsequent governments changed this policy it was in the end carried out almost to the letter.

The question is why, unlike many other countries, Germany has been so successful in abolishing nuclear power as an energy source.

Alex Lawson, writing in the Guardian, puts down the main driving force as being public opinion, which started to turn against nuclear power in the early 1970s and was reinforced by the nuclear disasters at Three Mile Island in the US in 1979 and at Chernobyl in 1986.

Public hostility was expressed in the ballot-box, in the rise of the Green Party and through a campaign of large-scale non-violent direct action campaign against nuclear power, including blockading waste trains and nuclear power stations.

OTHER WEST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The picture in other West European, as far as nuclear power is concerned, is mixed.

Both the UK and France have recently put forward ambitious plans for new nuclear power plants.

The UK’s 2022 energy security strategy policy papers announced that nuclear generating capacity would be increased from the then current 7GW to 24GW by 2050, 25% of the electricity demand estimated by then. This was to be achieved by building eight large new nuclear reactors. There are also plans for building new “small modular nuclear reactors”, but the number doesn’t appear to be specified.

These plans should be set against a background where nuclear power is actually in steep decline in the UK.

Nuclear installed capacity peaked at 12.7 GW in 1995, with the opening of Sizewell B – the nuclear reactor most recently opened in the UK. That made 37 civil reactors then operating in the UK. Currently all but nine of these have been shut down permanently and, of the nine, all but one are due to be shut down by 2028. The ninth is Sizewell B, which is not due to shut down till 2035.

Just one civil nuclear power station is currently being built in the UK, the 2-reactor Hinkley Point C station. This began building in 2017, with a predicted opening date of 2025. Because of technical problems, this opening date has slipped to 2028. Meanwhile the cost of the project has risen from a predicted £18bn in 2016 to a latest estimate of up to £33bn.

There are also plans for a new nuclear 2-reactor power station at Sizewell C that is due to begin building soon, but thee final investment decision has not yet been made for it to go ahead.

In France, a policy reversal in favour of nuclear power is even more marked. In February 2022, President Macron announce plans to build six new nuclear reactors and study the possibility of commissioning another eight to 14 new nuclear reactors. Construction would start in 2028, with the first one commissioned by 2035.

This marks an enormous policy change by Macron, who promised in 2018 to close 12 nuclear reactors as part of a move away from nuclear as a power source.

Meanwhile, the proportion of electricity produced from nuclear power in France is declining, from some 78.5% in 2018 to 69% in 2021. And, as in the UK, only one new reactor is in construction in France. This is Flamanville 3, which started building in 2007, with an opening date of 2012 and an estimated cost of 3.3bn euros. This reactor, too, has suffered great delays due to serious technical problems, and consequent large cost overruns. Its opening date is now given as 2024 and it is predicted that the final cost will be 13.26bn euros.

Spain has seven civil nuclear reactors, but has no plans for new ones and indeed plans to reduce electricity generation from nuclear power from 7,100 MW to 3,000 MW between 2025 and 2030.

Sweden has six civil nuclear reactors operating, with four others closed since 2016. Indeed no new nuclear reactors have started being built since 1985. However it was reported in March 2023 that the government is introducing legislation to allow further reactors to be built.

Belgium also has six reactors operating, but plans to close four of them by 2025 and the remaining two, the newest, by 2035.

Finland had four civil nuclear reactors operating before April 2023, when the number became five with the opening of the massive Olkiluoto 3 nuclear plant. However, Olkiluoto 3, because of technical problems, took 18 years to build instead of the four years it was originally planned to take. And the cost of building came to 8.5bn euros instead of the 3.2bn originally envisaged. This reactor is of the same French design as two reactors operating in China, and and as both Hinkley Point C and the planned Sizewell C in the UK. All have suffered from very large overruns in their planned construction time and massive increases over predicted costs.

Apart from Olkiluoto 3, no other reactors have begun building in Finland since 1985 and none is planned, but in March 2023 legislation was introduced in parliament to allow more nuclear plants to be built.

Switzerland has four nuclear reactors generating up to 40% of its electricity. In June 2011, parliament resolved not to build any further reactors, and hence to phase out nuclear power gradually, and this decision was confirmed in a 2017 referendum. It was said that this would mean all four reactors would be closed by 2034.

Holland has just one operating civil nuclear reactor. Having previously decided to phase out nuclear power, in 2021 the government announced plans to build two new civil nuclear reactors

Turkey has no civil nuclear reactors in operation, but a 4-reactor nuclear power station began building in 2015, though none of the reactors appear to have yet been completed.

Italy closed down all its nuclear plants by 1990, after a 1987 referendum came out against nuclear power.

Portugal has never built any civil nuclear reactors and plans to build some have all been cancelled or postponed.

The following countries have never built civil nuclear reactors and have no plans to do so: Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway,

So in total, eight West European countries, currently have civil nuclear reactors in operation while ten do not. Of the eight, four are planning to increase civil nuclear power generation, three are planning to abolish or reduce nuclear power and one, Finland, is not currently planning to do either. And one country, Turkey, not currently operating civil nuclear power reactors, is building four.