Commission confirms plans for nuclear Delegated Act

Brussels, 21 April 2021: FORATOM has taken note of the Commission’s plans to include nuclear under a complementary Delegated Act. According to the communication, released today, this DA will be consistent with the conclusions of the Joint Research Centre’s report – which confirmed that nuclear is as sustainable as other taxonomy-compliant power technologies – and subject to the opinions of the two expert groups.

“We are of course delighted to finally have some clarity on what the Commission is going to do with the outcomes of the JRC report”, states Yves Desbazeille, FORATOM Director General. “It shows that the Commission is willing to recognise that its taxonomy needs to be based on the science if it is to be credible and successful.”

According to the Communication, the Commission will “adopt a complementary Delegated act of the Taxonomy Regulation covering activities not yet covered in the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act”. It goes on to confirm that this DA will include nuclear, “subject to and consistent with” the outcomes of the JRC report and the opinions of the two expert groups (Euratom Article 31 experts group and the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks – SCHEER) which are due in June 2021.

Nevertheless, no indication is given as to when such a complimentary Delegated Act will be made available, even if the Commission did suggest it could be before the end of the year during the press conference. “To ensure that taxonomy does not lead to market distortions the Commission must publish this complimentary DA as quickly as possible once the expert opinions become available”, adds Mr Desbazeille. “We believe that this could already be done in September 2021 and thus enable nuclear to be added to the second set of DA’s – relating to the Do No Significant Harm criteria – due at the end of this year”.

The Communication also makes clear – via a footnote – that the JRC’s analysis “did not reveal any science-based evidence that nuclear energy does more harm to human health or to the environment than other electricity production technologies already included in the Taxonomy as activities supporting climate change mitigation”.

About us: The European Atomic Forum (FORATOM) is the Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe. The membership of FORATOM is made up of 15 national nuclear associations and through these associations, FORATOM represents nearly 3,000 European companies working in the industry and supporting around 1,100,000 jobs.

For more information, please contact Jessica Johnson: jessica.johnson@foratom.org.