While wind and solar energy are increasing, several countries, including France and the United Kingdom, are seeking to expand their nuclear energy programs. Germany and other countries are not so enthusiastic.

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Authors: Liz Alderman and Stanley Reed

Paris-European countries that desperately need long-term reliable energy to help achieve their ambitious climate goals are turning to an answer that shuddered in previous generations: nuclear power.

Poland hopes to have a small nuclear power plant to help end its dependence on coal. Britain is betting on Rolls-Royce to produce cheap modular reactors to supplement wind and solar energy. In France, President Emmanuel Macron plans to build on the country's massive nuclear program.

As world leaders pledge to avoid climate disasters, the nuclear industry sees an opportunity for revival. Many years after the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters, advocates are striving to gain recognition of nuclear power, as well as solar and wind power as acceptable clean energy sources.

Six European countries have recently announced plans to build a new generation of nuclear reactors. Some are smaller and cheaper than the old designs, occupying the space of two football fields at a fraction of the price of a standard nuclear power plant. The Biden administration also supports the use of this technology as a tool for "large-scale decarbonization" in the United States.

"Nuclear energy is becoming the mainstream of the climate movement," said Kirsty Gogan, a member of the British Nuclear Innovation Research and Advisory Committee and founder of TerraPraxis, a non-profit organization that supports the transition from nuclear energy to a green economy. "This is a crucial decade, and I think we will see real changes."

But not everyone believes that nuclear energy is the solution to climate change.

Ten years ago, a few months after the earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan caused the evacuation of more than 150,000 people, the German government announced that it would gradually shut down its nuclear program. Germany is now a leader in a group of countries that want to resolve the inclusion of more nuclear power in Europe's green energy structure. They are worried about the proliferation of nuclear power plants on European soil and the radioactive waste they produce.

This resistance is creating tensions with France, Europe’s largest nuclear energy producer, which has formed unusual alliances with Eastern European countries that hope to attract more nuclear power investment, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

The organization is urging the European Union to classify nuclear energy as a "sustainable" investment, a move that would release billions of euros in state aid and investment from pension funds, banks and other investors seeking to invest in environmental causes. Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain have joined Germany in an attempt to counter the initiative in Brussels.

The main selling point of the nuclear industry is the technology involved in downsizing factories or small modular reactors. Proponents say these technologies are safe, cheap and efficient. The point of contention is that wind and solar alone are not enough to help countries achieve the goals set out at the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow this month.

Nearly 200 countries participating in the conference pledged to make new efforts to prevent the earth from warming up to 1.5 degrees Celsius or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. Scientists warn that beyond this threshold, the risk of fatal heat waves and storms, water shortages and ecosystem collapse will greatly escalate.

However, even if countries increase their investment in wind energy and solar energy, their output is far from enough. The output of wind energy and solar energy differs depending on the factor. The reopening of the global economy due to the coronavirus pandemic has led to the recent surge in energy prices and has caused European governments to scramble to seek alternative power supplies.

Nuclear advocates say that experience shows the need for a new generation of nuclear power.

"For many countries, nuclear energy plays a very important role in achieving net zero emissions," said Tom Samson, CEO of Rolls-Royce SMR, which has already worked on the design of commercial small modular nuclear reactors. In 2016, he thought the time had come.

Rolls-Royce, which announced the establishment of a joint venture this month, is entering a multi-billion-dollar small nuclear reactor market, competing with American companies such as NuScale, GE Hitachi, and TerraPower (with Bill Gates as chairman); Électricité de France, the French state-owned power company; China National Nuclear Corporation; and South Korea’s KEPCO.

Mr. Samson used joint ventures as a new way to solve this new approach in an industry notorious for delays and cost overruns, and investors mostly avoided it. Rolls Royce, which produces jet engines and powers the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet, hopes to build 16 factories in the UK and realize export sales.

The cookie-cutter components will be manufactured in the factory and can be transported by truck or ship. Initially, each plant is expected to cost 2.2 billion pounds ($3 billion), while the current cost of a full-scale plant in western England is estimated at 22.5 billion pounds.

The drawings of the Rolls-Royce reactor show a compact futuristic building in the verdant landscape. A single reactor can generate approximately one-seventh of the largest modern nuclear power plant and can power 1 million households.

Unions in the UK and Europe support these initiatives, believing that nuclear power plants can create jobs and are preferable to renewable technologies such as solar farms, which do not require many workers to maintain.

Critics say that nuclear power is hardly a solution to accelerate the promotion of net zero emissions.

On the one hand, new nuclear power plants, even small ones, can take up to ten years or more to go online, partly because of regulatory requirements and the speed is far from sufficient to deal with climate emergencies. The first Rolls-Royce reactor will not be operational until 2031.

After the high-profile nuclear accident, safety issues and unresolved issues with radioactive waste storage have persisted.

Croatia opposes Slovenia’s nuclear reactor project, which will store some nuclear waste near its border. Germany opposes the planned Polish reactor, which the German Green Party said is likely to pollute Germany in the event of an accident.

Mark Hibbs, a senior researcher and nuclear expert at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, said that the ability of small nuclear reactors to quickly or cheaply produce energy vital to countries is also unclear. Mr. Hibbs, who is based in Germany, pointed out that it may take 10 such reactors to complete the same work as a large modern nuclear power plant.

Doug Parr, chief scientist of Greenpeace in the United Kingdom, said: “It does not solve social problems; it solves the problems of the nuclear industry.” He added, “They want to come up with a new concept without the bad image of large-scale nuclear energy.”

Those who promote the nuclear renaissance say that such concerns are exaggerated.

In France, President Macron announced this month that he will restart the country’s atomic program to “deliver” France’s commitment to cut carbon emissions. A recent report commissioned by the government concluded that France may not be able to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 using only renewable energy.

His government is expected to authorize the state-owned Électricité de France to build six new pressurized reactors and spend billions of dollars to help EDF produce small modular nuclear reactors by 2030. This work will become the lifeblood of EDF, with more than 40 billion euros (US$4.5 billion) in debt after fighting the delay and cost overruns of nuclear power plant construction.

In Eastern Europe, the craze has already begun.

Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, which have long relied on coal-fired power plants, have signed small reactor technology contracts with American and European companies. Poland alone plans to build large nuclear reactors and at least six small nuclear reactors in coal yards to generate electricity and create jobs.

John Kotek, vice president of policy development and public affairs at the Washington Institute of Nuclear Energy, said: "The ability to achieve new power generation in a shorter time frame and at a lower total project cost is the main driving force.

Nonetheless, Europe’s disagreement on nuclear energy is still large enough that policymakers may not be ready to support nuclear construction plans even if they desperately want to achieve climate change goals.

Mr. Hibbs of the Carnegie Foundation said: "It is impossible to establish any consensus policy in Brussels that strongly supports member states' investment in nuclear power." "This will be done by governments."

But as investors consider where to deploy trillions of dollars in assets while moving away from fossil fuels, nuclear power has become increasingly difficult to ignore.

"The general consensus in the climate community is that nuclear energy is a clean energy source," said Marissa Drew, Credit Suisse's chief sustainability officer.

"If someone can provide something that is economically viable, scalable, and truly green, and do it in a safe way," she said, "then we have to accept this."

Liz Alderman reported from Paris, and Stanley Reed from London.