Ulrike Felt
In March 2024, Brussels hosted a series of events dedicated to the role of nuclear energy in achieving “the EU’s climate neutrality, competitiveness and energy security objectives”. This Nuclear Energy Summit provided a platform for EU President von der Leyen to set out her perspectives on the future of nuclear energy in Europe. She emphasized that while European countries may hold quite different views on nuclear power, she firmly believes that “in countries that are open to the technology, nuclear technologies can play an important role in clean energy transitions”. She continues referring to “the global energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, stressing that “many countries are giving a fresh look to the potential role that nuclear might play”. However, the narrative surrounding nuclear energy extends beyond dependence on Russia and the ongoing war. It connects the reappraisal of nuclear energy with the climate crisis and the challenges faced by nation-states in achieving net-zero targets. The nuclear thus is wrapped in a new promise: no longer it is “to cheap to meter” as this was the case in the 1950ies, now the nuclear will “safeguard our energy security [as] countries look to reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels”. And she completes her assessment of energy choices by using European competitiveness as a further register of valuing (Heuts and Mol, 2013), “as nuclear power can provide a reliable anchor for electricity prices”[1].
The Nuclear Energy Summit serves as both a pivotal moment and a specific context for observing the situated and situational nature of valuation practices concerning energy choices. We can observe which registers of valuation were used by different actors, but also which moral/discursive and material infrastructures are actualized in this situation. It will therefore be essential not only to identify the registers, but also to look at the “regimes of valuation” (Fochler et al. 2016), i.e. to pay attention to the infrastructures that can be used as resources. At the same time, it is essential not to treat such moments of valuation as isolated events, but to carefully consider “the interconnectedness of moments across situations and social fields” (Waibel et al., 2021).
This paper aims to analyse the revival of nuclear energy after a period of (planned) phase-out in a considerable number of European countries from the perspective of valuation studies, focusing on three instances and particular contexts where revaluation of nuclear energy is taking place (Antal et al., 2015) and considering their interconnectedness. This analysis is situated in the wider research of the ERC grant “Innovation residues – Modes and infrastructures of caring for our longue-durée environmental futures” (http://www.innovation-reidues.eu). It will specifically examine the regimes of revaluation of nuclear energy, paying attention to how nuclear residues and the long-term nature of these commitments are (not) taken into account in these valuations often aiming at rather more short term goals.
The analysis will take the reader to three rather different important sites/moments where revaluing of nuclear energy takes place.
The paper will start by exploring the European Taxonomy Regulation[2](2020)which defines the conditions an economic activity has to meet in order to qualify as environmentally sustainable. The inclusion of nuclear energy in the taxonomy faced considerable debate and produced frictions due to differing perspectives on its environmental impact and sustainability.Putting the focus on nuclear energy, it will be essential to investigate the valuation practices in the context of the background report produced by the Joint Research Center[3], the Commission proposal as well as in the discussions at the European Parliament.
The second site will be the Nuclear Energy Summit (2024) which is well documents and is the most recent high level policy event which is meant to revalue the European energy policy when it comes to the nuclear. Here it will be relevant to see the network of actors, the regimes of valuation they navigate and how the change in direction from phasing out to reinforcing the nuclear is reasoned as unavoidable if the goal of “net zero” is to be achieved.
The third site is a national context, Ireland. Ireland is interesting as it has a legislative ban on generating nuclear energy in place since 1999; yet, currently the issue of nuclear energy more and more often is addressed. Not only enormous expansion of the data industry has put a serious strain on the energy sector, but also the net zero aims are far from reachable. Therefore, it is interesting to observe shifts in the registers of valuations with regard to nuclear power. Media, for example, cite the co-founder of a lobby group 18for0 (which means 18% nuclear energy to reach the net zero goals), Sarah Cullen, stressing that she feels that “the hard-line environmental stance of the anti-nuclear stance is outdated, and it’s a remnant of a different debate.” Nuclear energy is then described as not an “ideal technology”, but that Ireland has “a massive problem now”, referring to climate change.[4] In the Irish case it will be interesting to observe how it is possible to pursue and maintain conflicting performance ideals (increase the data industry and reach the climate goals) at the political level and what regimes of valuation emerge in such a situation of friction.
Taking the three cases together, will allow a comparative gaze across very different sites and constellations, considering their interconnectedness. It will show convergences and frictions in/between registers and regimes of valuation. The paper will pay specific attention to the different temporalities at work in this debate on reinvesting into nuclear energy. It shows different future making strategies (Doganova and Kornberger, 2021) with different temporal stretches – the long-term commitments due to nuclear residues while staging the nuclear as a relatively shorter-term solution to environmental problems.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_24_1624
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32020R0852
[3] https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125953
[4] https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/could-going-nuclear-help-ireland-achieve-its-climate-targets-1199834.html; Ireland is not a unique case where environmental NGOs start to think aloud about a relaunch of nuclear energy as an option.
Foto von Mick Truyts auf Unsplash