The European Union will have to invest €500 billion in a new generation of nuclear power plants by 2050 to achieve the planned emission reductions and meet the continent’s growing electricity demand, according to European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton in remarks he made in an interview with the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
He also pointed out that existing nuclear power plants will require investments totaling €50 billion by 2030.
According to Breton, investment in nuclear energy and renewable energy sources will be crucial to meeting the EU’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
The European Commission recently proposed to include nuclear energy among the so-called green investments, which the Czech Republic, among others, has long demanded. Breton described the proposal as key to attracting the necessary capital.
However, some EU member states opposed the proposal, such as Austria and Germany. Austria has even threatened legal action if the proposal will pass in its current form.
The proposal will probably be supported, for example, by France, which has long supported nuclear power and will chair the European Council in the first half of this year.
