energy

Nuclear Renaissance, With Some Hurdles

Poland has extensive plans to develop nuclear power. However, there are a number of barriers standing in its way. It is still an open question as to whether raison d'état is going to prevail in the nuclear considerations or whether – as has been the case so far – it will all end up as a game of appearances

On 30 June 2011, I was sitting with several editors-in-chief on the roof of the Russian embassy on Unter den Linden avenue in Berlin. Moments earlier, the German Bundestag had passed the Nuclear Phase-out Act in a roll-call vote, winning 513 out of 600 votes. The ambassador looked at the Reichstag and raised his glass of vodka, refilled before each service. In a friendly voice he said: ‘Here's to the German Government! It is a good day for Russian energy policy, it is a good day for Russia”, reminisced Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, in a text that Onet.pl reprinted after the German publication Die Welt on 23 February 2022, the day before Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Döpfner went on to admit: “It is now clear that the Russian ambassador was right. Influenced by the emotions after the Fukushima disaster, Germany made an epically wrong decision that led to dependence on Russian energy and Russian politics”. The result was Nord Stream 2 and a profound alienation of America from Germany and Europe. Vladimir Putin has been strengthened to a historically incomparable extent.

In a wave of Russian-inspired scepticism about nuclear energy, nuclear infrastructure was neglected in a number of countries, including France and Sweden. Today, both countries are facing unprecedented energy crises.