nucleareurope discusses long-term operation of nuclear reactors at Energiforsk conference

On 22 January 2025, nucleareurope Director General Yves Desbazeille gave a presentation on Long-Term Operation (LTO) of nuclear reactors in the EU, in the framework to the Stockholm-held Energiforsk Annual Nuclear Conference.

In his intervention, Yves highlighted the role that nuclear plays in the EU’s energy system, generating almost a quarter of the EU’s electricity in 2024. He added that in light of the need to decarbonise across multiple sectors, such as electricity and heat production, nuclear is set to play a major role in supporting the transition to net-zero by 2050.

“European Member States are increasingly aware of the importance of nuclear for the energy transition, the Nuclear Alliance’s objective of reaching 150 Gigawatts (GW) of nuclear installed capacity by 2050 shows the increased ambition of many European countries when it comes to nuclear.” stated Yves, noting that in order to reach such an objective, all types of nuclear would be needed, from large and small new reactors to LTO of existing ones.

Specifying that LTO is defined by the IAEA as the “operation [of a nuclear power plant] beyond an established time frame defined by the licence term, the original plant design, relevant standards or national regulations” Yves noted that in nucleareurope’s projected scenario, up to 35GW of nuclear installed capacity in 2050 could come from LTO.

He further added that LTO is a competitive and reliable way to support European energy sovereignty and provide reliability to the grid, highlighting that the Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) for LTO is the most competitive out of all power generation technologies.

Yves concluded his presentation by stressing that a technology neutral policy framework is essential for the EU to benefit from the potential of all net-zero technologies, and for nuclear -in the form of both LTO and new build- to continue to play a key role in the energy transition.