Last Year Brought a Breakthrough Few Had Anticipated: Hungary Was Right Again

More countries than ever are planning to build new nuclear power plants, while many are also preparing to extend the operating lifetimes of existing units. An expert speaking to our paper also pointed out that countries abandoning nuclear energy—Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg—have been left isolated in Europe.

More and more countries are recognizing that nuclear energy is indispensable (Photo: Tolnai Nepujsag / Denes Martonfai).

In early December, the European Commission approved the support package for the construction and subsequent operation of Poland’s first nuclear power plant, declaring it compatible with EU state-aid rules. Particularly striking is the fact that the Commission approved the Polish project in less than a year, with approximately 30 percent of the investment cost—€14 billion—provided as a capital injection to facilitate construction. While the European Commission did not conduct a detailed examination of the Polish project’s compliance with European public procurement rules in this case either, the European Court of Justice previously annulled a similar Commission decision related to Hungary’s Paks II project on procedural grounds. One thing is nevertheless clear: the Polish public supports the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country, Zsolt Harfas added.

According to the expert, it is worth returning to one particularly telling scenario from the publication mentioned at the beginning of the article, as the figures clearly demonstrate why nuclear energy should not be approached on ideological grounds and why it must form part of national energy mixes. Under the net-zero emissions scenario, global nuclear power capacity could rise from 420 GW in 2024 to more than the global target of 1,000 GW by 2050, potentially reaching around 1,080 GW. In terms of electricity generation, this would mean an increase from 2,835 TWh in 2024 to approximately 6,850 TWh by 2050. This trend is further confirmed by the fact that 62 new nuclear power units are currently under construction—28 of them in China—and that plans are already in place for the construction of an additional 400 to 450 new units in the coming decades, the expert concluded.