The United States and 21 other countries committed to tripling nuclear power capacity by 2050 at the U.N. climate summit in Dubai on Saturday, saying revitalizing nuclear energy is crucial to reducing carbon emissions to near zero in the coming decades reduce.
Proponents of nuclear power, which supplies 18 percent of the electricity in the United States, say it is a clean, safe and reliable complement to wind and solar power. However, a significant hurdle is financing.
Last month, a developer of small nuclear reactors in Idaho announced it was canceling a project that had been expected to be part of a new wave of power plants. The cost of building the reactors had risen from $5.3 billion to $9.3 billion due to rising interest rates and inflation.
Britain, Canada, France, Ghana, South Korea, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates were among 22 countries that signed the declaration to triple capacity from 2020.
Tripling nuclear power capacity by 2050, which would also help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas, would require significant investment. In advanced economies that have nearly 70 percent of the world’s nuclear capacity, investment has stalled as construction costs have soared, projects have gone over budget and there have been delays. In addition to costs, another obstacle to the expansion of nuclear energy is that the construction of power plants is slower than for many other forms of energy.
John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, addressed the funding issue, saying there are “trillions of dollars” available that could be used to invest in nuclear energy. “We’re not arguing to anyone that this is absolutely going to be the comprehensive alternative to every other energy source – no, that’s not why we’re coming here,” he said. But, he added, science has shown that “without nuclear power, the net zero target in 2050 cannot be achieved.”
Nuclear energy does not emit carbon, and a report from the International Energy Agency last year said nuclear power is critical to reducing carbon emissions in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron said nuclear energy, including small modular reactors, was an “indispensable solution” to efforts to curb climate change. France, Europe’s largest producer of nuclear power, gets around 70 percent of its own electricity from nuclear power plants.
Mr. Macron and other leaders, including Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, called on the World Bank and international financial institutions to help finance nuclear projects. Mr Kristersson said governments “need to take a role in sharing financial risks to strengthen conditions and provide additional incentives for investment in nuclear energy.”
While world leaders on Saturday hailed nuclear energy as the most effective alternative to fossil fuels, some climate activists said nuclear energy was not a panacea.
David Tong, a researcher at Oil Change International, said the promise is disconnected from the reality of nuclear energy – it is too costly and too slow. “It is a self-serving political promise that does not reflect the role that nuclear power is likely to play in the energy transition, which is secondary,” he said. “There is very little growth in nuclear power – certainly nothing like a tripling.”
He said he rejected the stance that there was no way to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a target set in the Paris agreement to prevent the worst effects of global warming without nuclear power. Masayoshi Iyoda, a Japan-based activist with 350.org, an international climate change campaign, pointed to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 and said nuclear power was a dangerous distraction from decarbonization goals. “It is simply too costly, too risky, too undemocratic and too time-consuming,” he said in a statement.
“We already have cheaper, safer, more democratic and faster solutions to the climate crisis, namely renewable energy and energy efficiency,” Mr Iyoda said.
All but four of the 31 reactors that began construction since 2017 were designed by Russia or China, with China poised to become the top nuclear energy producer by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. This year, Germany shut down its last three nuclear power plants.
Nuclear capacity increased in the 1980s, particularly in Europe and North America, but declined sharply in subsequent years following the accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986. Since then, new technologies and stricter regulations have been introduced.
Americans are divided on nuclear power, but a growing number support its expansion compared to several years ago, according to a Pew Research Center study released in August.