The decision of the European Commission to include nuclear energy in the taxonomy of green energies –along with gas– has provoked an interesting and necessary debate on the energy transition that must culminate, in 2050, with the generation of zero CO2 emissions according to the EU’s own forecasts. It is understandable that the Commission proposal has raised the reservations of some EU states -including Spain-, taking into account that nuclear energy, although it does not generate polluting emissions, poses unresolved problems of storage of highly radioactive waste and others derived from the dangers involved in handling enriched uranium.
alerted by the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, public opinion has received the Commission’s proposal with logical suspicion and an environmentalist sector has presented it as a concession to the nuclear ‘lobby’, headed by France, and to Germany’s needs for Russian gas, after the closure of three of its six nuclear plants. However, the debate opened by the Commission cannot be settled using the old slogan of ‘nuclears, no thanks’. The issue raised by Brussels is not nuclear yes or no. It is about finding the best energy ‘mix’ that allows decarbonising the economy, in such a way that the increase in the average temperature of the planet can be contained (less than 1.5 degrees by 2030). Y this ‘mix’, which must have its center of gravity in renewable energies, solar and wind, cannot be conceived in the short term without a certain share of electrical energy from gas and nuclear plants.
Spain is planning close all its nuclear power plants by 2035. This means that 21.5% of the energy that these nuclear plants currently produce should be produced within 13 years with wind, solar and hydraulic sources. A goal that seems unrealistic, despite the notable increase in wind and solar farms. if it is intended maintain current levels of well-being of the population we will have to continue using, even beyond this date, nuclear energy and gas. From this perspective, the EC’s decision to include these two sources among green energies can facilitate the necessary investments to improve the profitability and safety of nuclear plants. States are sovereign in the matter, but as members of the EU they must assume a collective commitment to reduce the current percentage occupied by nuclear energy in Europe from 26% to 15% in 2050. Spain still has a way to expand its solar and wind farm, particularly in Catalonia , which depends too much on Aragon in terms of renewables. But nevertheless, must embrace the EU perspective if you want to prevent a hasty closure of nuclear power plants from triggering the consumption of fossil fuels and an excessive geopolitical dependence on Algerian gas.
All energy production processes pose sustainability problems, not just nuclear. It is therefore about looking for the least bad of the combinations. Spain must agree on an energy model in which renewables occupy an increasingly larger space, hydraulic energy has its reason for being, to cover the intermittence of renewables, and gas and nuclear energy, even losing share, allow us to undertake an orderly energy transition, within the framework of the Community strategy.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com