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Croatia opposes a nuclear reactor project in Slovenia that would dump some nuclear waste near its borders. Germany is objecting to a planned Polish reactor, which the German Green party says would likely contaminate Germany in the event of an accident.
Mark Hibbs, a senior fellow and nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the ability of small nuclear reactors to produce energy quickly or cheaply enough to be important to countries is also unclear. Germany-based Mr Hibbs noted that 10 such reactors might be necessary to do the same job as a large modern nuclear power plant.
Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s chief scientist in Britain, said: “It doesn’t solve society’s problems; solves the problems of the nuclear industry.” “They want to come up with a new concept that doesn’t have the bad image of big nuclear,” he added.
Those pushing for a nuclear revival say such concerns are exaggerated.
In France, President Macron this month announced It would relaunch the country’s atomic program to “comply” with France’s commitments to reduce carbon emissions. A recently commissioned report He concluded that France probably won’t be able to achieve net zero emissions with renewable energy alone by 2050.
His government is expected to authorize the state-owned Électricité de France to build six new pressurized reactors, and to spend billions Help EDF produce small modular nuclear reactors by 2030. The work will be a lifeline for EDF, which has debts exceeding €40 billion ($45 billion) after battling nuclear power plant construction delays and cost overruns.
In Eastern Europe, the rush is already underway.
Poland, Romania and Ukraine, long reliant on coal-fired power plants, are among those that have signed contracts with American and European companies for small reactor technology. Poland alone plans to build large nuclear reactors and at least half a dozen small reactors in coal fields to generate energy and create jobs.
“The ability to deliver new electrical power generation in a shorter timeframe and at a lower total project cost is the primary driver,” said John Kotek, vice president of policy development and public relations at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group in Washington. .
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