GLASGOW (AFP) – For more than two decades, proponents and suppliers of nuclear energy felt shunned at UN climate conferences.
At the COP26 summit in Glasgow, however, they were welcomed with open arms, the United Nations supreme nuclear regulator told AFP.
The ghost of Chernobyl and Fukushima, along with the ongoing problem of nuclear waste, kept the energy produced by fission of atoms on the sidelines, even if that energy was virtually carbon-free.
But as the climate crisis deepens and the need to move away from fossil fuels becomes urgent, attitudes may change.
“Atomic energy is part of the solution to global warming, there is no getting around it,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in an interview.
It already accounts for a quarter of the “clean” – that is, carbon-free – energy in the world, and Grossi said this COP was the first she was “at the table” at.
“The winds are changing.”
To even have a 50/50 chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – the threshold for dangerous tipping points that could trigger runaway warming – global greenhouse gas emissions must be within a decade will be cut by almost half, scientists say.
But things are still moving in the wrong direction: a report on Thursday said emissions are nearing record levels in 2021.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that they could reach new heights by 2023.
This helps to bring attention back to nuclear power.
“Nuclear power was not welcome at the 2015 COP in Paris,” said Callum Thomas, head of a nuclear recruiting firm, who was spotted at COP26 wearing a “Let’s Talk Nuclear” t-shirt.
“It was believed that it wasn’t necessary. Now many countries are examining the feasibility, especially in view of rising gas prices.”
– never stop –
The Argentine diplomat Grossi has been a tireless advocate of the industry since he took office almost two years ago.
At his first COP in Madrid he left “despite the general belief that nuclear weapons are not welcome”.
On the contrary, in Glasgow, where nearly 200 countries are still trying to give meat to the 2015 Paris Agreement, he said: “Nuclear power is not only welcome, it is met with great interest”.
Grossi argues that not only can the technology accelerate the transition from fossil fuels, but it can also advance research on technologies needed to adapt to climate change, from finding drought-resistant crops to eradicating mosquitoes.
He admits that there are serious risks involved.
The meltdown of three reactors at Japan’s Fukushima power plant in 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami shook confidence in nuclear energy.
Industry also has to find a way to dispose of nuclear waste that has remained highly radioactive for millennia.
But Grossi said that these problems do not rule out, arguing that the technology has statistically fewer negative consequences than many other forms of energy.
It could also be a complement to renewable energies.
“Nuclear energy goes on and on all year round, it never stops,” he said.
Even so, many argue that given the long construction times, it is too late to build enough nuclear capacity to effectively fight global warming.
But Grossi said he believed part of the answer was to keep the existing reactors running.
– 100 year old reactors? –
Many power plants that are designed to run for 40 years are now licensed for 60 years under strict national safety standards monitored by the IAEA, he said.
“What could be more efficient than a plant that you build that will provide you with energy for almost 100 years?” he said.
He admitted that systems that run for that long could be a “little provocation”.
“But it could still be possible.”
The IEA includes all non-carbon sources in its prognoses to limit the global rise in temperature while at the same time satisfying rising energy demands around the world.
The climate science advisory body of the United Nations, the IPCC, has given nuclear energy a place in its models, even if it says that its use “could be restricted by societal preferences”.
Indeed, attitudes towards nuclear power differ widely from country to country.
While New Zealand and Germany are against it, India is negotiating with the French energy giant EDF to build the world’s largest nuclear power plant.
In the meantime, both Canada and the US are developing so-called “small modular reactors”, with only Russia having commissioned a floating reactor with this technology.
The price is also no longer what it used to be, said Grossi.
“The countries see a very interesting alternative in smaller units, which is not in the billions, but in the hundreds of millions,” he said. “In the case of energy projects, this is quite affordable.”
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