EU big-wigs finally change their tune on nuclear power

Promoting nuclear power was long taboo in Brussels, but a high-profile international summit on Thursday sent loud and clear the message that atomic energy — now touted by its champions as key to fighting climate change — is back.

In the past two years, atomic pioneer France has been spearheading a drive to establish nuclear energy as a key source of carbon-free energy in the EU.

Organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Brussels summit followed on from last year’s COP-28 climate talks, at which 22 nations backed a call to triple the world’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050.

“This is a fight where we have to use all the available, dispatchable, CO2-free energy sources for the common challenge,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the summit bringing together more than 30 countries, from Europe but also the U.S., China and Brazil.

In a joint declaration, the states committed to “work to fully unlock the potential of nuclear energy,” including by mobilising public and private finance to meet the sector’s colossal investment needs.

Inside the European Union, that message is being carried by a “nuclear alliance” of a dozen countries including France, launched last year with a view to weighing on policy, with a string of successes.