Is Nuclear the UK’s Energy Future?
From DW
When it comes to nuclear energy, Europe’s policy is anything but unified. Individual countries are charting their own course – particularly Britain, where government plans show a very nuclear future.
In Brussels last week (22.02.13), an energy council met to discuss land-use changes for biofuels. The intent was to complete an internal EU energy market by 2014. The EU itself has committed to an energy roadmap that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Yet countries within the EU still have wildly varying energy policies, particularly when it comes to nuclear energy.
Germany is phasing out nuclear energy entirely. Thirteen other EU countries, however, continue to operate nuclear reactors. Following the Fukushima disaster, Spain and Switzerland banned the construction of any new reactors, while France not only runs a number of reactors in its own country, but operates eight out of nine reactors in the UK through Electricité de France (EDF).
