In just the last week, three European countries independently made positive moves towards nuclear power. The Green Old Deal Against Nuclear is dying. Cause of death? Reality.
The biggest player in the shift is Germany, which decided to exit nuclear power in 2011. The Ukraine conflict sent energy prices and coal consumption in Germany soaring, but environmental hardliners insisted on closing the last three nuclear plants last year. (Apparently no one told these doofuses that nuclear power emits no greenhouse gases!)
Friedrich Merz, the new conservative German chancellor, is pro-nuclear and has boosted research into modular nuclear reactors.
France is also back into nuclear plants and, significantly, Germany will no longer block French efforts to ensure nuclear power is treated on par with wind and solar power in the European Union environmental rules. This would end the Eau’s biases against nuclear power.
This month, Belgium’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to repeal a 2003 law mandating a nuclear phase-out. The day before, two-thirds of Denmark’s parliament voted to lift a 40-year ban on nuclear power.
Welcome to the 21st century.