The future of Nuclear Energy in European union
By admin at 14 February, 2008, 10:53 pm
The Commission’s Green Paper on security of supply was published in November
2000. Since that date it has been the subject of a debate around a number of essential
questions. A number of them are worth briefly repeating to set the scene in Europe.
· The European Union is consuming more and more energy and importing more and
more energy products. External dependence for energy is constantly increasing.
· If no measures are taken, in the next 20 to 30 years 70% of the Union’s energy
requirements will be covered by imports. At present 45% of oil imports come
from the Middle East and 40% of natural gas from Russia
· The European Union now has to face new challenges. These include:
· Enlargement – to perhaps 30 Member States with different energy structures
· Liberalisation of the sector. The competition introduced in the electricity
sector by the internal market is changing the conditions of competitiveness
· Environmental concerns, which are nowadays shared by the majority of the
public and which include damage caused by the energy supply system. On the specific issue of the environment, the struggle against climate changes is a
major challenge. The commitments made in the Kyoto Protocol are only a first step.
Greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise in the Union as in the rest of the world.
The energy debate “should take into account that current energy demand is covered
by 41% oil, 22% gas, 16% coal (hard coal, lignite and peat), 15% nuclear and 6%
renewables. If nothing is done, the total energy picture in 2030 will continue to be
dominated by fossil fuels: 38% oil, 29% gas, 19% solid fuels, 8% renewables and
barely 6% nuclear.”
Of the eight Member States of the European Union now operating nuclear power
plants, five (Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium) have adopted or
announced a moratorium. Italy renounced nuclear power after a referendum in 1987.
This leaves three Member States – Finland, France and the United Kingdom – who have not taken a negative decision. Needless to say, all eyes are fixed on Helsinki for
tomorrow’s decision by the Parliament.
Personally I have doubts that the importance of nuclear will decline to such an extent.
However, I have no special insights as to its possible future. We have done
calculations that would indicate that during the next two decades, we might need
between 200 and 300 GWe of new generating capacity. Replacement of the existing
park could almost double this amount. Even if these predictions turn out to be far
wide of the mark, it is still clear that there will be a substantial market for new
capacity. I should point out now that this is the only bit of “crystal ball gazing” that I
will do during this talk. I will not speculate on nuclear’s possible share of this marketonly
some of the other factors that could influence its future as an energy source.
However, before discussing our view of the future of the nuclear option, I would like
to highlight for you our political priority in the energy sector – new and renewable
sources of energy.
Non ci sono commenti.