nucleareurope discusses 2050 perspectives for nuclear at CEEC 2024

On 2 December 2024, nucleareurope Policy Director Andrei Goicea participated in a panel discussion on opportunities, expertise, and obstacles to nuclear energy in Europe, organised in the framework of the Central European Energy Conference 2024, held in Bratislava from 2 to 3 December.

In his intervention, Andrei highlighted that opinions on nuclear are evolving at both national and European levels, with a shifting balance power reflected by an increasing number of Member States joining the EU Nuclear Alliance.

“Many European countries acknowledge the importance of nuclear for reaching decarbonisation objectives while maintaining security of supply” said Andrei, noting that many have announced plans to continue using or invest in nuclear energy. He added that the objective of 150 GW of nuclear installed capacity by 2050, put forward by the EU Member States Nuclear Alliance, was an additional sign of an increased ambition for nuclear energy in Europe.

In this context, he briefly mentioned the outcomes of the recently released “Pathways to 2050” report, which shows that more nuclear would allow to decarbonise faster and at lower costs, while maintaining security of supply.

Concluding his intervention, Andrei stressed that reaching this objective would require the mobilisation of industry and decisionmakers at both at EU and national levels to ensure that policies are in place to support the long-term operation of existing reactors as well as the construction of 115 GW of large and small nuclear new build. He added that this cannot be done without considering some key enablers that policy makers, industrial stakeholders, consumers, regulators, civil society and trade unions could implement to support the development of additional nuclear capacity in the EU.