2023-12-03 14:31:33
A cautious response from the Federal Council
In its response noted by the Tamedia newspapers, the Federal Council is cautious. He emphasizes that acceptance of the PLR president’s postulate “does not prejudge the lifting of the ban on building new nuclear power plants. However, taking the scenario into account allows you to make fully informed decisions.”
The debate on the return of nuclear power is therefore well underway. And it will be held during the parliamentary session which begins on Monday, the text by Thierry Burkart being on the program of the Council of States on Thursday, December 7. This summer, the UDC Minister of Energy, Albert Rösti, also said he was “ready for anything” regarding nuclear power, adding to Temps in September: “In this transition phase, we need our nuclear fleet.”
Our interview: Albert Rösti: “The electricity situation is clearly better than last year”
The current situation
In Switzerland, 58% of the electricity produced comes from hydropower, 32% from nuclear power, 8% from new renewable energies and 2% from fossil fuels. Four nuclear power plants are in operation, Gösgen, Beznau I & II and Leibstadt, including two of the oldest reactors in the world. Nuclear power has the advantage of providing electricity continuously and on demand according to needs, especially in winter, unlike wind power and photovoltaics which have intermittent electricity production depending on sunshine and conditions. Wind. Technologies are being developed to store energy produced by renewable energies.
In real time: electricity consumption and production in Switzerland
The fear of an electricity shortage by 2050 is supported by a recent study of the Association of Swiss Electrical Companies carried out with the Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (Empa). This indicates that the electrification of cars and the energy renovation of heating systems will lead to a sharp increase in electricity needs, which will increase from 62 TWh currently to between 80 and 90 TWh in 2050, an increase of 25 to 40 % depending on the scenarios. According to the authors of this projection, the increase in electricity needs and the successive decommissioning of Swiss nuclear power plants by 2044 will create a production deficit of 37 to 47 TWh, “which will have to be filled by the construction of new installations” .
The bond of the “Mantelerlass”
Faced with these concerns, parliamentarians are not remaining idle. A major adaptation of the energy strategy was adopted by the Federal Chambers last September. After two years of deliberations, they shaped the Mantelerlass, the “single amending act” which changes several laws, notably those on energy and electricity supply. One of the objectives is to enable the production of twice as much electricity from renewable sources by 2050 as initially planned by the 2050 Energy Strategy.
On this subject: The five key points of the “Mantelerlass”, this new foundation of the Swiss energy transition
The National Energy Commission, chaired by PLR Jacques Bourgeois (FR), has also put in place a law to accelerate procedures for renewable energy installations. “We realize that their development is too slow. This new text will allow the cantons to concentrate the levels in the procedures,” explains the Fribourgeois, who welcomes the decision of the Federal Council for its response on nuclear power: “We should not oppose renewable energies and nuclear energy, I think that the two are complementary. And we must not close the door to technological developments which will make it possible to reduce the risks linked to nuclear power as much as possible, even zero risk does not exist.
Nuclear power advocated by around twenty countries at COP28
The idea of redeveloping nuclear power is also gaining ground among the leaders present at COP28, faced with the need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And from this point of view, nuclear power ticks the right boxes. On the occasion of the United Nations climate conference, around twenty countries – including France, the United States and the Arab Emirates which have built their first power station – launched a call to triple nuclear capacities by to 2050. The authors of the IPCC report also took into account the share of nuclear fuels in modeling the trajectory allowing us to stay below 1.5°C.
Read also: “Nuclear energy is the future”: at the UN conference, an offensive for the atom
The left is boiling
But this return to favor of nuclear power is contested by the left. Asked by Sunday Morning, national councilor Bastien Girod (Les Vert·e·s/ZH) specifies: “It would take at least twenty years to build a new power station; in terms of transition, it would come clearly too late.” And according to him, adding reactors to old power plants amounts to “extending the operating life of a generation of power plants from the 1970s, less safe than the most recent.”
Roger Nordmann, national advisor (PS/VD) and rapporteur of the commission which oversaw the reform of the Mantelerlass, sees in Thierry Burkart’s approach an “ideological fantasy”. “I think that the desire of the president of the PLR is to slow down the development of renewable energies. But whatever happens, we will have to do one day without nuclear power, because it is not realistic to think that there could be a new reactor before the end of the aging power plants,” says the national advisor to the Temps. Not only would a return to nuclear power take decades before a new construction project could see the light of day, but also “we would not know where to put it in the territory, if it had to be more than 50 kilometers from a town “. And the question of radioactive waste is still not resolved, “even though it has been produced since 1969”.
video Nuclear: why the comeback?
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