EU's nuclear, CCS policies on shaky ground

摘要

The EU's ambitious plan to decarbonize its economy by 2050 is built on three energy technology pillars -renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage. However, Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident and a shock court ruling against an Italian clean coal power plant with CCS have left the last two looking precarious. EU leaders moved quickly in March after the massive earthquake and tsumani-induced Fukushima nuclear accident to reassure EU citizens by agreeing to carry out and make public the result of common safety "stress" tests on all of the EU's 143 nuclear reactors. However, EU nuclear regulators have struggled to find consensus on the scope of these tests. At a meeting in Brussels in mid-May nuclear regulators' group Ensreg worked out a compromise on criteria that would leave nuclear security issues, including terrorist threats, to the EU Council.