Cuts in Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine have reignited interest in Europe about using nuclear energy as an alternative to hydrocarbons, sparking environmentalists’ ire.
“On nuclear energy, this crisis will have consequences for the way we consider energy security in all EU countries,” said Czech Energy Minister Martin Riman, whose country holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.
“One of the ways this might happen is to argue in favor of the return of nuclear energy,” he told a news conference in Brussels on Thursday.
The debate is already going strong in former Soviet bloc members of the EU which are highly dependent on Russian gas and have been hit hard by supply cuts in the standoff between Moscow and Kiev.
Even as Russia and Ukraine neared a deal that would lead to a resumption of gas supplies, Slovakia said on Saturday it would begin reopening a power generator at the Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear plant because of the cutoff.
The decision was taken “in the interests of Slovakia, industry and citizens” Prime Minister Robert Fico said.
On Dec. 31, Slovakia shut down the last unit of the Jaslovske Bohunice plant in line with a commitment it made as a condition for its 2004 entry into the EU.
“We know that this is a violation of our conditions of membership” in the European Union, he said, but given the circumstances, there is “a risk of a blackout” that must be addressed.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso had warned Slovakia against the move, saying that the response to the gas cuts was not to go back on promises.
Nuclear energy has long been one of the most sensitive subjects in Europe and it got a boost last year during the oil price boom when it was seen in some countries such as Britain and Italy as a possible alternative.
However, other countries slowly giving up on nuclear energy, such as Belgium, Germany and Sweden, refuse that it be openly touted as a solution for Europe’s future energy needs.
Meanwhile other European countries such as Ireland have never used nuclear energy.
France, by far Europe’s biggest nuclear power generator, has promoted its use as a way of reducing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Paris sees the Russian gas crisis as another argument in favor of nuclear energy, not to mention a source for potential new contracts for state controlled power giant Electricite de France.
Nuclear energy generates about one third of the EU’s electricity and accounts for about 15 percent of the bloc’s total energy consumption.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing