Ursula von der Leyen: abandoning nuclear energy was Europe's 'strategic mistake'.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivered a dramatic message from the IAEA nuclear summit in Paris, calling the reduction of the share of nuclear energy in Europe a "strategic mistake" that has made the continent vulnerable and dependent on imports of fossil fuels. And as the energy crisis caused by the war in Iran rattles markets, Brussels is for the first time offering concrete financial support for new technologies.

Ursula von der Leyen emphasized that Europe produced a third of its electricity from nuclear sources in 1990, while today that share has fallen to just 15%. "Turning away from a reliable and affordable low-carbon energy source was a conscious choice, but I believe that it was a strategic mistake," said the head of the EC, directly criticizing the policy she once pursued and her homeland Germany after Fukushima, although we remind that Germany still stands firmly as an opponent of nuclear energy.

The first 200 million euros from Brussels

Although nuclear projects are not financed directly from the EU budget due to opposition from countries such as Austria and Luxembourg, the European Commission has pulled off a pioneering move: a 200 million euro guarantee for private investments in innovative nuclear technologies. The funds will be drawn from the carbon credit market (ETS), signaling a change in the status of nuclear energy within the EU's "green" architecture.

Macron's plan: Diversification of uranium and standardization

French President Emmanuel Macron warned about the remaining dependence on Russia, from which the EU was still importing 15% of uranium in 2024. He called for urgent diversification of supply and proposed standardization of reactor designs across Europe.

Of course, Macron primarily means the EPR and EPR2 reactor family of the French company EDF, which were at one time designed as a standardized European project (after all, "EPR" is the acronym for "European Presurized Reactor"), but this plan did not come to fruition for a number of reasons: at one point Germany decided on a completely different energy policy; after the Fukushima disaster, construction of new nuclear projects was halted; and the EPRs have proven to be extremely expensive. Thus, to date, only four EPR reactors are operational: Taishan 1 and 2 in China, Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, and Flamanville 3 in France.