2023-11-03 20:21:00
Twelve member states of the European Union, including Romania, have asked the European Commission to create an industrial alliance for small modular nuclear reactors (SMR), in a joint letter published on Friday and confirmed by the AFP agency, writes Agerpres.
NuScale small modular reactor prototypePhoto: Nuclearelectrica
In the joint letter, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden asked the EU executive to create an “industrial alliance at EU level”, adding that the initiative would “stimulate investments in European SMR capacities and the development of a European value chain”.
This alliance would allow the consolidation of “our energy sovereignty and the competitiveness of our industry”, estimated the representatives of the member states.
They also appreciated that the support of the European Commission is “necessary” to “ensure that these innovative projects benefit from existing and future European legislation”.
The European Forum for Nuclear Energy – which will take place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Monday and Tuesday – “would be an opportunity to engage in this direction”, the signatories appreciated.
“A solution for producing electricity without fossil energy in 2030”
“France was at the initiative of a letter signed by 12 European ministers to the European Commission,” the office of the minister for energy transition, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, told AFP.
This European SMR alliance would also serve to “strengthen the European nuclear industry and European security of supply and competitiveness”, he added.
In May last year, the 12 states met in Paris with Belgium and Estonia, with which they form an alliance of pro-nuclear European countries, as well as Italy and the United Kingdom, to set a roadmap for energy development nuclear.
To decarbonize the industry, the European Commission has declared itself favorable to 4th generation nuclear reactors, as well as small modular reactors, both of which are under development.
The signatory countries mentioned in their letter that small modular reactors can be “a solution for the production of electricity without fossil energy in the 2030s”, assuring that “nuclear power could supply up to 150 gigawatts in the EU by 2050”, against of 100 GW currently.
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