Some fifteen ministers from pro-nuclear countries are meeting in Paris on Thursday and Friday for an international conference, under the aegis of the OECD and the Swedish government, intended to put “into action” the revival of nuclear power, in order to meet global climate objectives.
“The time for action has come […] “There is still a lot, a lot of work to do,” William D. Magwood, director general of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the OECD, the group of developed countries, said at the opening of the conference.
This second edition of “Roadmaps to New Nuclear 2024” aims to examine “concrete ways to honour global commitments to increase nuclear energy production to combat climate change”.
Around fifteen countries are represented – United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, members of the European Union (France, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Estonia, Czech Republic), Ghana, as well as nuclear industry players (EDF, Orano) and small modular reactor (SMR) players.
The event comes less than two months before the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, where the focus will be on climate finance.
According to the NEA, global nuclear capacity would need to triple by 2050 to meet carbon neutrality targets, by combining existing reactors, new generation reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs). Last year in Dubai, at COP28, around twenty countries, including the United States, France, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, committed to following this objective.
It remains to be seen whether it will be made concrete…
The NEA is organising this event for the second time in Paris, with Sweden as co-organiser this year, a leader in renewable energy, and one of the countries that has decided to restart the construction of reactors, to “provide stable electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”.
“There is a window of opportunity here that, if not seized, will make it difficult for us to resolve the difficult equation” between “high climate targets” and “economic growth,” Ebba Busch, Sweden’s deputy prime minister for energy, told reporters.
Over the course of two days, three major priorities will be the focus of discussions: supply chains, training a skilled workforce, and financing: subjects that are “essential for moving from rhetoric to action,” according to the minister.
Last year, the twenty or so ministers present had already launched a joint appeal to international finance, encouraging “development banks” and “international and regional financial institutions” to finance nuclear projects, which are often long and costly.
This year, two joint statements – one from countries and one from industry – are expected by Friday.
Renewed interest
Having fallen out of favor after the disaster at the Japanese Fukushima plant in 2011, nuclear power, a low-CO2-emitting energy source,2like wind and solar, is experiencing renewed interest worldwide, driven by climate and energy security imperatives.
According to the IEA, the OECD’s energy agency, nuclear capacity worldwide will need to more than double by 2050.
“Nuclear power is making a strong comeback in the world,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told AFP, praising the advantages of nuclear power as a “friend of energy security” and “of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” But restarting the construction of nuclear reactors poses many challenges for countries that have not built any for a long time.
In 2023, only five new reactors representing a total capacity of 5 GW were commissioned worldwide, while five units were closed (6 GW), a net drop of 1 GW, according to a report on the state of the nuclear industry published Thursday.
Most of the construction in progress (59 reactors) is being carried out by China, for its domestic market, and by Russia for other countries.
“Just to maintain the current capacity, we would already have to commission 10 reactors per year,” that is to say, doubling the rate of 2023, which is “industrially improbable,” Mycle Schneider, coordinator of this critical report on the subject, told AFP.