{"id":14201,"date":"2024-11-15T23:59:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T22:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=14201"},"modified":"2024-11-15T23:59:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T22:59:29","slug":"nuclear-energy-saving-the-planet-or-risking-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/14201\/nuclear-energy-saving-the-planet-or-risking-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Energy: Saving the Planet or Risking It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While nuclear energy is highly efficient and produces clean power, accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima demonstrate the potentially lasting consequences of failure. With Europe aiming for climate neutrality by 2050, nuclear energy remains a pivotal issue. In this article, Fernand Kartheiser from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Jutta Paulus from the European Greens share their parties\u2019 views of nuclear energy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSo far we tried out two ways of blowing up a nuclear power plant\u201d<\/em>, says Jutta Paulus from the European Greens. \u201cthe first was Chernobyl where we mistreated the system and where they didn’t really know what they were doing, the second was because of a natural disaster, Fukushima, where a tsunami hit. And the third one is something which we might see in Western Europe, which is just deterioration of material.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>The European Greens want to phase out currently running reactors and switch to renewable energy.<\/p>\n

Currently there are 103 nuclear reactors operational in the EU, with France leading at 56.\u00a0 As of 2022 the Eu produced around 37% of its own energy while 63% was imported. As shown in Figure 1<\/em>, nuclear energy made up 11% of the EU\u2019s total energy mix in 2022. Figure 2<\/em> highlights that 27.6% of the EU\u2019s domestically produced energy comes from nuclear reactors. Phasing out these reactors would remove over a quarter of the EU\u2019s domestic energy production, significantly impacting energy independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t