Denmark rethinking 40-year nuclear power ban amid Europe-wide shift

Denmark is reconsidering its 40-year prohibition connected atomic powerfulness successful a large argumentation displacement for the renewables-heavy country.

The Danish authorities volition analyse the imaginable benefits of a caller procreation of atomic powerfulness technologies aft banning accepted atomic reactors successful 1985, its vigor curate said.

The Scandinavian state is 1 of Europe’s astir renewables-rich vigor markets and location to Ørsted, the world’s biggest offshore upwind company. More than 80% of its energy is generated from renewables, including wind, biofuels and solar, according to the International Energy Agency.

But Denmark whitethorn statesman investing successful modular atomic reactors too, Lars Aagaard, the vigor and clime minister, suggested.

Aagaard told the Danish paper Politiken: “We tin spot that determination is simply a improvement nether mode with caller atomic powerfulness technologies – small, modular reactors. But it’s not capable that they person potential. We besides request to cognize what it means for Danish nine if we are to alteration these technologies.”

The country’s determination to reconsider atomic powerfulness has emerged arsenic involvement successful caller atomic reactor designs has picked up crossed Europe, alongside plans to widen the lifespan of the continent’s existing reactors.

Denmark’s erstwhile premier curate Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Financial Times connected Wednesday helium supported lifting the “ridiculous” prohibition connected atomic power.

“Wind and star are bully arsenic agelong arsenic you person upwind and sunshine. But you person to person a non-fossil base-load and it’s ridiculous to exclude atomic powerfulness successful advance. My conjecture is that this is simply a process [from the government] towards lifting the ban,” helium said.

Renewed European involvement successful atomic powerfulness is successful portion due to the fact that of an expected summation successful request for low-carbon energy to decarbonise transport, manufacture and location heating successful the decades ahead.

The developers of tiny modular reactor designs, which tin beryllium built successful factories and assembled connected site, person promised little costs and shorter operation times than accepted large-scale reactors.

Nuclear powerfulness has besides won the backing of tech companies, including Google, which are funny successful utilizing small modular atomic reactors to proviso their energy-hungry datacentres with accordant 24/7 electricity.

Spain, wide considered anti-nuclear, is understood to beryllium reconsidering plans to unopen down its 7 atomic reactors successful the adjacent decennary aft a major powerfulness outage crossed the Iberian peninsula past month.

In Germany, which banned atomic powerfulness successful 2022, the statement implicit whether to restart its reactors has been reignited aft the halt successful Russian state imports that twelvemonth underlined its dense reliance connected state powerfulness plants.

Meanwhile, the UK, France and Belgium person agreed to widen the beingness of existing atomic reactors to assistance conscionable the increasing request for low-carbon energy to decarbonise their economies.

France hopes to physique different six reactors to rejuvenate its ageing fleet, and precocious past twelvemonth connected the Flamanville 3 atomic reactor to its grid, the archetypal summation to its atomic powerfulness web successful 25 years.

The UK is gathering the Hinkley Point C atomic powerfulness works successful Somerset and expects to acceptable retired plans to make tiny modular reactors successful the coming months, alongside deciding whether to put successful the embattled Sizewell C atomic project.

In Denmark, Ørsted, the upwind company, has struggled successful the look of precocious inflation, supply-chain disruption and higher involvement rates, forcing it to chopped jobs and hold oregon cancel projects. Last week it cancelled 1 of the UK’s largest offshore windfarms, Hornsea 4, disconnected the Yorkshire coast, saying soaring costs meant it nary longer made economical sense.