OPINION | JEREMY GORDON


Jeremy Gordon is an independent communication consultant with 15 years of experience in the international energy industry. His company Fluent in Energy supports partners of all kinds to communicate matters of clean energy and sustainable development.


More haste, less speed


Countries looking to invest heavily in new nuclear capacity – especially those in Europe — also need to consider how they will manage used nuclear fuel. Jeremy Gordon asks whether it should be managed by industry or government


THE UNIT: Illustration copyright Alexy Kovynev


secured scientific recognition that nuclear power is sustainable, as well as the political acceptance of that fact at the EU level in the Taxonomy, European countries are now concerned with the strings that Brussels attached to sustainable finance. You guessed it — used fuel disposal. This process would more likely be sped up by governments letting go of control than by them making new rules. The Taxonomy draft released at the end of last year said


And what Sultan did with the spent nuclear fuel... I will tell you the next night


HE IMPORTANCE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY is as clear as ever, as is the urgent need for new build. But nuclear’s return has reinvigorated the need for disposal of used nuclear fuel, and that situation is still muddled. Like most other things concerning


nuclear this is more urgent in Europe which, outside of Russia, is feeling a collective need to catch up. Having


14 | February 2022 | www.neimagazine.com


that pro-nuclear countries in the EU that want to leverage nuclear’s sustainable status for investments will have to show either a plan to have a repository in operation by 2050 or substantial progress towards that goal. That second part is vague. What constitutes substantial progress? Is it enough to have a designated site, or a defined process to select a site? How about having a licence application in progress? The US Yucca Mountain project shows that a repository can have regulatory approval, yet still not be built. The question may be urgent for countries in Eastern and


central Europe, which are looking to invest in a big way. The head of Czech utility CEZ, Daniel Beneš, was buoyed by the Taxonomy and said the company is looking to expand its new-build programme from just one new unit at Dukovany. He wants to add a pair of units at Temelin and then another new unit at Dukovany. With all that done and the older Dukovany units retired, Czech capacity in 2050 could be about 50% greater than today’s and it could be providing around half of the country’s electricity. With so much at investment at stake it is natural for the


Czech industry to be wondering whether it can satisfy the 2050 repository criteria. While the waste disposal agency


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