Twelve member states of the European Union, including Romania, have asked the European Commission to create an industrial alliance for small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), in a joint letter obtained and published on Friday by the website Contexte and confirmed by AFP, writes Agerpres. .
In a joint letter, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden asked the EU executive to create an “industrial alliance at EU level”, adding that the initiative “will stimulate investment in European SMR capacity and the development of the European value chain”.
This alliance would allow us to consolidate “our energy sovereignty and the competitiveness of our industry”, the representatives of the member states estimated.
They also assessed that support from the European Commission is “necessary” to “ensure that these innovative projects benefit from existing and future European legislation”.
The European Forum on Nuclear Energy, which will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Monday and Tuesday, “will be an opportunity to engage in this direction”, the signatories estimated.
“France was initiated by a letter to the European Commission signed by 12 European ministers,” the office of Energy Transition Minister Agnes Panier-Runachet told AFP.
This European SMR alliance will also serve to “strengthen the European nuclear industry and European security of supply and competitiveness”, he added.
Last May, 12 countries met in Paris with Belgium and Estonia, with whom they form an alliance of pro-nuclear European countries, as well as Italy and the United Kingdom, to define a roadmap for the development of nuclear energy.
To decarbonise the industry, the European Commission has announced its support for 4th generation nuclear reactors as well as small modular reactors, both of which are under development.
The signatories said in their letter that small modular reactors could be “a solution for fossil-free electricity generation in the 2030s”, saying that “nuclear power could supply up to 150 gigawatts in the EU by 2050”, up from 100. GW currently.
Source: Hot News
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