Nuclear Moratoriums Are Crumbling Around the World.

[NNadir]

From my nuclear news feed:

Nuclear moratoriums crumble around the world

The recent surge in positive sentiment about nuclear as the most viable answer to global energy needs and decarbonization goals has found governments around the world taking steps to reverse course on decades-old bans, moratoriums, and restrictions on new nuclear development.

Across Europe, North America, and Asia, these reversals make it clear that growing public support and extensive talk about the new nuclear renaissance is promoting concrete, substantive change in critical energy policies.

Belgium: By an impressive margin (102 votes in favor, 8, and 31 abstentions), Belgium’s parliament officially voted this month to scrap its 22-year-old pledge to phase out nuclear power and instead revive the country’s nuclear industry...

...Taiwan: Taiwan’s previous president, Ing-wen Tsai, had campaigned fiercely on a platform of making Taiwan a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025. After she was elected in 2016, Tsai amended the Taiwan Electricity Act to mandate that Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants had to close after their 40-year licenses expired...

...However, Taiwan’s new president, Ching-te Lai, voiced an early openness to a nuclear revival on the campaign trail, and Taiwan is now amid reversing course on its nuclear policy. Just a few days before Maanshan-2’s shutdown began, lawmakers revised the law to allow for license renewals of closed plants. Critically, these renewals can be applied even after plants have been shut down...

Denmark: Lars Aagaard, Denmark’s minister of climate and energy, has announced that the Danish government will conduct a yearlong analysis of the potential benefits of new nuclear power construction in the country, opening the door to a potential rescindment on the country’s 40-year prohibition on nuclear power...

...Germany: After abandoning a nuclear sector made up of no fewer than 30 power-producing reactors and officially closing its last plant in 2023, Germany took center stage as a strongly antinuclear country and significant opponent to Europe’s nuclear leader, France.

The first sign that the country would get caught up in the new nuclear wave came in March, when the German state of Hesse signed an MOU with Focused Energy, the European Investment Bank, and eight other industry partners to support the development of a first-of-a-kind nuclear fusion plant at the decommissioned Biblis nuclear fission plant.

This action foreshadowed a critical development that came to light last Sunday when the Financial Times reported that Germany has officially dropped its long-standing opposition to nuclear power, as it is now being considered among renewables for green energy EU legislation. This roadblock-clearing is set to have positive implications for nuclear’s future in the EU.

It probably comes under the rubric of "too little, too late," given the magnitude of the global heating crisis we are now experiencing, particularly at a time when electricity demand is expected to rise rapidly.

With respect to extreme global heating, the rate of release of the fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is accelerating rapidly.

It takes years to develop a nuclear manufacturing infrastructure such as the one destroyed in the US by fear and ignorance, or the one currently functioning in China. I am hopeful that Framatom has begun to improve its supply chain and construction applications.

Again, it's too little too late, but at least the direction is positive.

The good thing for the US is that we have a large inventory of used nuclear fuel, that can be reprocessed to develop breeder systems here.