Germany has shut down three of its six remaining nuclear power plants On December 31 and plans to shut down the other three by the end of 2022 as well. In 2002, Germany relied on nuclear power for nearly 30% of its electricity. Within a year, that percentage will be zero. 

Belgium is also another country that is decreasing its reliance on nuclear energy, with Belgium committing to closing down its seven remaining nuclear power plants by 2025. Switzerland has also gone down the same road after a 2017 referendum that subsidized renewable energy.

France however, has gone down another path, as nearly 70% of electricity in the country is generated by nuclear power and more power plants are expected to be built in the future. Nuclear power proponents argue that it is one of the safest and lowest-carbon forms of electricity generation there is, and that is why France has some of the lowest-carbon electricity anywhere in Europe.

Nuclear skeptics, on the other hand, say nuclear’s low-carbon credentials are undercut by its high costs and the long timelines involved in building new plants, as well as long-standing public concerns about safety and radioactive waste.

According to a report by Wired, in order to meet its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050, Europe has to deliver a large reduction of those emissions by 2030. That is why critics of Germany’s nuclear plan have said phasing out nuclear power plants while still using coal-fired power plants is contradictory.

Is nuclear power the answer?

On the other hand, nuclear power in France is also unreliable. At the end of 2021, 17 of France’s 56 nuclear reactors were paused because of planned maintenance or technical issues, which forces France to buy electricity from its neighbors, even though it is usually a net exporter of electricity. Aging plants are also a problem for the UK, as not enough new nuclear reactors are being constructed to fill the gaps between the decommissioning of old ones and the need for new ones.

The UK will retire six of its nuclear reactors by 2030, but it only has one power plant currently under construction: a two-reactor facility being built in Somerset. The lengthy time scales mean that building nuclear reactors is not the best way for Europe to rapidly decarbonize.

The French government is hoping a new kind of reactor could provide a boost for its nuclear efforts. French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a €30 billion ($35 billion) investment plan that includes funding for small modular reactors. These are lower-capacity plants that would theoretically be faster and cheaper to build and could be placed in areas that are unsuitable for large plants.

The UK government has also put £210 million ($286 million) behind the development of small modular reactors, but so far the only such reactors to have been connected to a grid anywhere in the world are two that make up a floating power plant docked in Pevek harbor, in the remote northeast of Russia.