R10: Resolution on nuclear

Resolution on nuclear

30.7% of total EU’s CO2 emissions is made by energy supply (Statista, 2024). A
clear, realistic and ambitious energy policy is needed to achieve the goal of
decarbonizing the whole industry. Our current policy lacks the realism part when
considering nuclear power – which no matter the downsides plays a major role of
carbon neutral electricity production in our member countries.

1 – Reality with nuclear phase-out and fossil fuel usage

The current text considering nuclear power does not coincide with the realities
in EU countries with nuclear electricity production. Even with massive
investments into renewable energy sources, massive amounts of fossil fuel
production is needed (Bdew, 2024). The lost nuclear electricity production was
largely replaced by coal (Jarvis et al., 2022).

The main issue is that while nuclear energy provides stable electricity
production, most renewable sources are weather dependent by nature (Brunner et
al., 2020). Additional flexible energy demand is filled with fossil fuels
because we don’t yet have the technologies for additional carbon neutral
flexible energy production (Zöphel et al., 2018). The issue is not just
political or economic, hence needing viable policies. Positioning ourselves to
advocate for phase-out of all nuclear energy – no matter how modern and safe
those powerplants are – will ultimately lead to dependency on fossil fuels,
whether we want it or not. The stance on nuclear power being dirty and dangerous
is outdated and lacks the proper understanding of scales considering the global
climate catastrophe.

2 – Emerging nuclear technology

The current text doesn’t mention emerging nuclear technologies, which are
generally known as Small Modular Reactor Technology Developments. These
technologies are fission reactors aiming for modular development, improvements
in nuclear safety with passive safety elements (f. ex. lower pressure ranges and
natural conduction circling) as well as other nuclear fuel such as thorium
(IAEA, 2020). The possible usages of these new reactors tackle the issues of
decarbonizing district heating and industrial steam processes, hence widening
the potential usages of nuclear energy from electricity production to sectors
which are harder to decarbonize with renewables. However, the current text notes
that nuclear fusion “will be unable to provide a concrete response in time to
solve the climate crisis”. While the point is true, fusion technologies are just
part of all nuclear technologies developed at the moment. Fusion is not relevant
to address in the platform, but Small Modular Reactor Technologies should be
addressed.

3 – Nuclear safety

Historically the global Green movement has opposed nuclear power. Major nuclear
disasters (Three Miles Island and Chernobyl) as well as thousands of nuclear
tests and handling of nuclear waste were large issues in the latter part of the
20th century. However, the lessons learned from the disasters, accidents and
problems regarding nuclear waste has made nuclear energy one of the most
reliable production methods in the world (Statista, 2022). While large
environmental catastrophes and loss of life as a result of a nuclear accident is
technically possible, so is one from a structural failure of a dam. Nuclear
power is in the same level of deaths per unit of electricity production as wind
and solar power and unsurprisingly coal and oil are at the top (OWID, 2018).

No electricity production method is perfect. Modern powerplants regulated by
national nuclear safety authorities in Europe are safe and regulated. We should
focus our safety concerns on the ends of the uranium lifecycle. The mining of
uranium doesn’t create considerable radiation risks, but it has the risks
involved with all mining. Hence, we ought to have more regulation on the mining
practices in EU and to regulate the import of uranium from countries with poor
mining safety practices or human rights violations. The recycling and deposition
of used nuclear fuel is another problem with both radiation risks and questions
about the morality of long-term deposition of the fuel. The conversation around
these topics and the wider nuclear safety is an important one, but it shouldn’t
be influenced by scare tactics or historical sentiments.

Sources:

Bdew. (2024) Die Energieversorgung 2023 - Jahresbericht

Brunner, C. Deac, G. Braun, S. Zöphel, C. (2020) The future need for flexibility
and the impact of fluctuating renewable power generation. Renewable Energy. Vol.
149.

ENTSO-E Transparency Platform. (2024) Actual Generation per Production Type.
(Updates continuously)

IAEA. (2020) Advances in Small Modular Reactor Technology Developments Statista.
(2022) Mortality rate from accidents and air pollution per unit of electricity
worldwide, by energy source

Statista. (2024) Distribution of carbon dioxide emission in the European Union
in 2022

Stephen, J. Deschenes, O. Jha, A. (2022) The Private and External Costs of
Germany’s Nuclear Phase-out. Journal of the European Economic Association.
Zöphel, C. Schreiber, S. Muller, T. Möst, D. (2018) Which Flexibility Options
Facilitate the Integration of Intermittent Renewable Energy Sources in
Electricity Systems. Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports. Vol. 5.

Our World in data. (2024). Website, read 18.7.2024.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-energy-production-per-twh

Proposal for the new text

The following text is based on the new EC amendment proposal. Our additions are
bolded.

Nuclear energy (see Glossary 111) cannot be built in time to use it as a climate
crisis solution. Nuclear energy, just like any energy source, has drawbacks,
including but not limited to the exploitation of workers in the extraction of
uranium (see Glossary 181), the long-term disposal of nuclear waste, huge
consequences of potential accidents, the long time it takes to build and the
increasingly expensive costs to build nuclear power plants.

Currently operating powerplants should continue to operate and produce
electricity as long as national nuclear safety authorities deem the powerplants
safe and reliable. The modernization efforts and continuous safety improvements
overseen by the nuclear safety authorities are crucial for the usage of nuclear
energy. The learnings from Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear
disasters must influence the improvements of nuclear safety systems and accident
mitigation plans. While serious nuclear accidents are few and far between, the
number of lives the production of fossil fuels and electricity claims yearly are
in the millions.

All nuclear safety deviations must be reported to the general public even if
they don’t meet the criteria for International Nuclear Event Scale (INES)
anomalies or incidents. National laws considering all usages of radiation have
to demand nuclear powerplant operators, enrichment operators, nuclear waste
operators and nuclear fuel transportation operators to be fully transparent
about the safety deviations.

FYEG prioritizes renewable energy sources over nuclear and fossil fuels. FYEG
demands that renewable energy development must not endanger biodiversity and
must reduce reliance on rare earth minerals that often are mined in exploitative
practices. Possible phaseout of nuclear powerplants must be reliant on renewable
energy and must not increase the reliance on fossil fuels even in the short run.

Small modular nuclear reactor technology may be developed and used for district
heating purposes as well as electricity production in remote areas. Community-
owned small reactors are a viable option to decarbonize district heating where
renewables are not scalable to fit the demand due to Arctic conditions or lack
of electricity infrastructure. Eventually we want to stop using the small
modular nuclear reactors as well, when the renewable production methods are
reliable enough to carry the whole electricity infrastructure.

The development of renewable energy limits the dependence on fossil fuels and
uranium from Russia and other authoritarian states. The end goal of FYEG energy
policy is a decentralized and community-owned and operated renewable energy
system.