Denmark’s government has started weighing the opportunities and risks of lifting a 40-year-old ban on the use of nuclear energy, Minister of Climate and Energy Lars Aagaard said on Wednesday.
Denmark banned the use of nuclear energy in 1985, after the Parliament voted to remove nuclear power from the country’s energy planning. The ban from March 1985 was enacted a year before the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Now Denmark is considering the potential and risks of using advanced nuclear technology such as small modular reactors (SMRs), the energy minister said.
“We observe that new nuclear technologies are emerging – small modular reactors. The government has decided to institute an inquiry of the potential of these new nuclear technologies,” Danish newspaper Politiken quoted Aagaard as saying today.
“But just having potential isn’t enough. We must also understand what it means for Danish society if we are to enable these technologies,” the minister added.
The minister ruled out traditional nuclear power plants—Denmark will be studying only next-generation SMRs.
The ongoing review of potential nuclear energy use doesn’t mean that Denmark is ditching its current energy policy to pursue wind and solar power generation as “the cheapest and fastest routes to green transition,” Aagaard said.
Wind and solar power currently account for half of Denmark’s electricity supply. Among developed economies, Denmark has one the highest shares of wind electricity, which together with bioenergy and solar photovoltaic make up over 80% of the electricity mix.
Another EU member state, Italy, is also considering a return to nuclear energy after 40 years. Italy has already moved forward with steps to return to nuclear.
Earlier this year, the Italian government approved a proposal to begin drafting a series of laws that would ultimately lead to a return to nuclear power generation after more than four decades.
Italy halted nuclear reactors after a referendum in 1987 following the Chernobyl disaster a year earlier. In 2011, Italians rejected again the use of nuclear power in yet another referendum.
But Italy’s current government led by Giorgia Meloni said last year that it plans to adopt legislation to return to nuclear power with the latest generation of SMRs, as part of efforts to decarbonize industry.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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