The European Parliament voted with a wide majority in favor of endorsing small-scale nuclear reactors on Tuesday, December 12th, bringing Europe one step closer to affordable and abundant energy.
The adopted resolution calls on the Commission to create and finance a specific industrial strategy for Small Modular Reactor (SMR) development, while asking the Council to “demonstrate a firm commitment” to the technology’s successful deployment in the EU.
As we have previously reported, SMRs represent a new, innovative technology that is much cheaper and quicker to construct, more cost-effective to maintain, has a smaller environmental footprint, and is generally considered safer than traditional reactors.
Most importantly, however, SMRs have the power to finally break with Brussels’s decades-long anti-nuclear crusade.
Realizing that the EU’s overly ambitious carbon reduction goals cannot be achieved through renewables alone, the center-right EPP put forward an initiative to bolster the deployment of innovative nuclear energy across Europe. The proposal quickly gained the support of conservatives (ECR and ID) and even liberals (Renew) in the Parliament.
“Suddenly, in the end, we recognized how important it is that we speak about energy security,” the SMR file’s rapporteur, MEP Franc Bogovič (EPP) explained in the latest episode of The European Conservative’s news show, published on Monday, December 11th.
Indeed, the EU neglected nuclear power for a long time, Bogovič said, but the pandemic and the war in Ukraine made Brussels realize that Europe needs every source of low-carbon energy, which must also be affordable, green, and competitive. Finally, Europe’s back on “the right track,” the MEP said.
The resolution was adopted with 409 votes in favor and 173 against, with only 31 abstentions. The Greens and The Left voted almost entirely against it. The social democrats (S&D) were more split on the issue, but two-thirds of the group still rejected the proposal.
“The left is very dogmatic in this,” MEP Rob Roos (ECR), one of the file’s shadow rapporteurs told The European Conservative after the resolution passed at the Committee level last month. “They’d rather say there is no climate crisis than to say we have to use nuclear energy.”
While the vote is an important step, it will still take years until small modular reactors are operational in Europe. The current estimates from the industry put the commercial deployment of SMRs to the early 2030s, Bogovič noted. Many conditions need to be met first, the MEP added, as the development of the technology will require a common European regulatory framework.
The education system also has a great role to play, both in attracting people to nuclear science and in making young people understand that nuclear power is fundamental to decarbonization, Bogovič said. “This is the connection that we must bring forward on the European level.”
