Zwentendorf 40 years: Where is the nuclear energy today?

06/11/2018

Half of EU states use nuclear energy, nearly a quarter of nuclear energy in the EU

455 nuclear power plants produce about 10% of the world's electricity – currently, 59 nuclear power plants are under construction, more than half of them in China, India and Russia.

"40 years ago, the Austrians had rejected the commissioning of the Zwentendorf nuclear power station to only 50.47% and had thus marked history," recalls Peter Traupmann, general manager of the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant. Austrian Energy Agency, November 5, 2018. Since then, developments have confirmed the result. There is today in Austria a broad social and political consensus on the fact that the use of nuclear energy is not a sustainable, safe and sustainable way to generate energy. ;electricity. "Four decades later, energy is back on the agenda, this time it's about our climate and a radical change is needed if we want to limit the noticeable changes. As nuclear power in Austria has been a "no go" for 40 years. ~ That is, this should also apply in the future for fossil fuels – knowing that this is a long and difficult path, "says Traupmann. The challenges on this path for an energy future without fossil fuels are considerable. This is illustrated by the example of electricity: according to the energy and mission strategy # mission2030, at least the same amount of electricity produced from renewable energy sources has to be produced in Austria in 2030 in relation to total consumption. To generate the required 88 TWh from renewable sources, the share of wind and photovoltaic energy, for example, must be increased from 12% today (6.1 TWh) to 42% (36.7 TWh). "Austria is an international model for environmentally friendly electricity production: already more than 70% of them are generated from renewable energy sources and 100% by 2030. This is a much bigger change than the transformation of the Austrian energy system to nuclear energy, "said Elisabeth Köstinger, Federal Minister for Sustainable Development and Tourism, who said nuclear energy should not play a role in decarbonisation in Europe. it is all about equal opportunities for renewable energy production and the real cost of producing energy from fossil fuels and nuclear energy. " is not an alternative, it is a part of the problem, only the transition to renewable energy can be the future. The European public must stop subsidizing nuclear energy and we will continue to do so at the European level. "Highlights Köstinger.

Zwtl .: Zwentendorf and the development of nuclear energy in Europe

In the 1950s, US President Lewis L. Strauss, of the Atomic Energy Commission, still believed that the production of nuclear energy would be "too inexpensive to be measured" – "too inexpensive to even be measured and loaded". Great hopes have been placed in this technology. Austria, too, wanted to create "the entry into the era of nuclear energy" (according to a former commercial). The construction of the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant started in 1972, when the costs were (converted) estimated at around 500 million euros. As part of the energy planning of the 1970s, three nuclear power plants with a total power of 3,300 MW were planned, which were never realized after the Austrian refusal of nuclear energy . Nuclear power plants were already operational in 11 of the current 28 Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany (just ahead of France), Spain, France, the Netherlands, former Czechoslovakia, Italy, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. However, production accounted for only about 20% of production in 2016 and covered 9% of electricity consumption.

Italy has not generated nuclear energy since 1987. However, in the 1980s, other plants were built in Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary. In 1996, a new nuclear power plant was commissioned in CernavodÄ (Romania), in 1998 the Mochovce nuclear power plant (Slovakia) and in 2002 in Temelin (Czech Republic). At present, 14 of the 28 EU Member States operate nuclear power plants.

Nuclear energy in the world: 10% of electricity

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in 2017, nuclear energy accounted for about 10% of the total electricity production in the world. There are currently 455 nuclear reactors with a capacity of approximately 400 GW in the network. In the north, west and south of Europe, production capacity could decrease by 30% by 2030, according to the IAEA. On the other hand, production capacity in Eastern Europe will probably remain the same over the next two decades, or even increase by up to 30%. According to the latest "2018 Global Renewable Energy Report" (GSR 2018), nuclear energy accounts for 2.2% of total global energy consumption, with 79.5% of fossil energy .

A quarter of nuclear energy in Europe, the second largest behind renewable energy The share of nuclear power in the EU-28's electricity mix was 26% in 2016, which meant second place behind the renewable energy with 30%. Coal accounted for 22%, gas 19% and other fossil fuels 3%. In 2014, for the first time in the EU-28, the production of electricity from renewable sources was greater than that produced by nuclear energy.

France accounted for 48% (403 TWh) of electricity production from EU nuclear power plants in 2016, followed by Germany (10%), the United Kingdom (8.5% ), Sweden (7.5%) and Spain (7%). These five countries together account for 81% of nuclear power generation.

Between 1990 and 2004, the production of electricity from nuclear power plants in the EU increased by 27%, after which it decreased by 17% by 2016. The main reasons are the closure of the Lithuanian nuclear power plant Ignalina in 2009 and the gradual exit of Germany from the nuclear, which is expected to be completed by 2022.