The Politics Of Nuclear Energy In The European Union

For the foreseeable future the overall use of nuclear electricity in the European Union is unlikely to change significantly despite the controversies surrounding its use amongst the EU’s nation states. The author questions the role that nuclear electricity plays in meeting the challenges of providing secure, competitive and sustainable energy to support the development of the low carbon economy in the EU. Analysis presented focuses on the evolution of the discourse on nuclear energy amongst policy makers at European and national levels as well as amongst the public.

Environmental concerns have pushed the decarbonisation of the European economy high on the EU political agenda. This has renewed old debates about the role of nuclear energy in the European economy and society that gravitate around the issues of nuclear safety and radioactive waste management (RWM). RWM carries many elements of technical complexity, scientific uncertainty and social value, which makes policy decisions highly controversial. Public participation is usually believed to improve these decisions, ease their implementation by solving substantial conflicts, and enhance trust and social acceptance. Drawing upon sources including Euratom and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, the author offers a detailed overview of public involvement in RWM in the EU, analysing the implementation of national policies through official programmes and the views of stakeholders from all Member States. This book highlights the key successes and challenges in the quest for greater participation in RWM, and extrapolates insights for other contested energy infrastructures and controversies in land use. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and practitioners with an interest in radioactive waste management, energy policy, and EU environmental politics and policy.

With the dramatic changes OPEC precipitated in the structure of world energy markets during the 1970s, energy became a central concern to policymakers throughout the industrialized West. This book ex-amines the responses of public officials in three leading European nations—the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and the Netherlands—to the energy crisis. As the study shows, the proposed energy programs in the three countries shared remarkable similarities; yet the policy outcomes were very different. To explain why, Michael T. Hatch goes beyond the specific content of government energy policy to include an analysis of the policymaking process itself. At the heart of the study is an exploration of the various dimensions of nuclear policy in West Germany. The political consensus on nuclear power that prevailed in the initial years following the energy crisis disintegrated as antinuclear "citizens' initiatives," the courts, and trade unions, as well as the traditional political parties, entered the policymaking process. Subsequent government efforts to resolve the political stalemate over nuclear power foundered in a morass of domestic electoral politics and an international debate over nuclear proliferation. Extending the analysis to comparisons with French and Dutch nuclear strategies, Hatch argues that the critical factor in determining nuclear policy was the manner in which the political system structured the nuclear debate. In contrast to West Germany, where the electoral and parliamentary systems enhanced the influence of the antinuclear "Greens," the electoral system and constellation of political parties in France served to dissipate the influence of the antinuclear forces. Thus in France the nuclear program en-countered few impediments. In the Netherlands, as in West Germany, government policy was paralyzed in the face of antinuclear sentiment across a broad spectrum of Dutch society. Hatch has provided here not only a useful examination of the development of energy policy in western Europe but also a case study of the close interplay between policy and politics.

A comprehensive analysis of nuclear energy policies in the key Western Europe countries over the entire post-war period.

Challenging one-eyed technology-focused accounts of renewables policy, this book provides a ground-breaking, deep-diving and genre-crossing longitudinal study of policy development. The book develops a multi-field explanatory approach, capturing inter-relationships between actors often analyzed in isolation. It provides empirically rich and systematically conducted comparative case studies on the political dynamics of the ongoing energy transition in six European countries. While France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom opted for ‘technology-specific’ renewables support mixes, Norway and Sweden embarked on ‘technology-neutral’ support mixes. Differences between the two groups result from variations in domestic political and organizational fields, but developments over time in the European environment also spurred variation. These findings challenge more simplistic and static accounts of Europeanization. This volume will be of key interest to scholars and students of energy transitions, comparative climate politics, policy theory, Europeanization, European integration and comparative European politics more broadly, as well practitioners with an interest in renewable energy and climate transition. The Open Access version of this book, available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429198144, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This open access book discusses the eroding economics of nuclear power for electricity generation as well as technical, legal, and political acceptance issues. The use of nuclear power for electricity generation is still a heavily disputed issue. Aside from technical risks, safety issues, and the unsolved problem of nuclear waste disposal, the economic performance is currently a major barrier. In recent years, the costs have skyrocketed especially in the European countries and North America. At the same time, the costs of alternatives such as photovoltaics and wind power have significantly decreased. Contents History and Current Status of the World Nuclear Industry The Dramatic Decrease of the Economics of Nuclear Power Nuclear Policy in the EU The Legacy of Csernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Waste and Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Plants Alternatives: Heading Towards Sustainable Electricity Systems Target Groups Researchers and students in the fields of political, economic and technical sciences Energy (policy) experts, nuclear energy experts and practitioners, economists, engineers, consultants, civil society organizations The Editors Prof. Dr. Reinhard Haas is University Professor of energy economics at the Institute of Energy Systems and Electric Drives at Technische Universität Wien, Austria. PD Dr. Lutz Mez is Associate Professor at the Department for Political and Social Sciences of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. PD Dr. Amela Ajanovic is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Energy Systems and Electrical Drives at Technische Universität Wien, Austria.--

Energy and Environmental Law and Policy Series #39 While the European Economic Community has evolved through the decades into the legal entity of the European Union, the substantive law contained in the 1957 Euratom Treaty has never been amended. Recurring legal discussions of the treaty’s potentially obsolete nature give rise to this much-needed handbook, which provides systematic analysis and evaluation of the competences conferred under the Euratom Treaty. Following the structure of the Euratom Treaty, the author analyses and evaluates the scope, content, exercise, and case law of the Euratom Communities’ competences in the following fields: Promotion of research, with reference to the Horizon research programmes; dissemination of information; health and safety, including environmental protection; investments; joint undertakings; nuclear supplies; safeguards; property ownership of fissile materials; the nuclear common market; and the Community’s external relations. The book deals with issues of stagnation and potential obsolescence through such lenses as the legislative amendment procedure, level of regulatory detail, quantitative elements of exercise, secondary legal acts, and the Court of Justice of the European Union’s power to define and delimit the Euratom Community’s competences. The competences in the fields of military activities and State aid are also examined in detail. The role of principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in European nuclear law and the issue of classification of competences under the Euratom Treaty are addressed in this book. With its systematic, chapter-by-chapter analysis of competences of the Euratom Community under the Euratom Treaty, the book will be welcomed by lawyers and negotiators working in nuclear field, researchers in nuclear law and in the broader competences of the EU, and policymakers in the European nuclear sector. “This book represents an important contribution to the renewed academic discourse on the Euratom Community. I would like to recommend it both to those looking for concise information on this neglected Community as well as to those dealing with the topic of competences with respect to the law of the EU. It is also vital reading for policymakers and lawyers active in the field of energy and nuclear law” Jakub Handrlica, Common Market Law Review (2021)

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Region: Eastern Europe, grade: 9 out of 10, Maastricht University (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), course: Module D - Traid and Aid - European Studies, Specialisation in International Politics of the European Union, language: English, abstract: Energy security is a topic with growing importance on the global political agendas. Within the European Union (EU) the consideration of supply security is of particular significance as the member states depend on outside sources, meaning principally oil and gas, to satisfy their need of energy. The EU-27 was dependent on oil imports on 82.6% and on gas imports on 60.3% in 2007. Own resources are not sufficient and in the present days the EU merely covers 46.9% of the energy consumption by its own means. When the current trends proceed the EU will be dependent on 90% for oil, 70% for gas and 100% for coal in years 2030-40. Therefore, the role of producer countries becomes increasingly important, especially regarding Russia as it is the biggest importer to the EU in crude oil, gas and hard coal. The supply dependence on Russia could have severe consequences for the EU as gas disruptions leading to supply crises in several member states like in 2006 and 2009 had already shown. But also the Russian Federation is dependent because the EU is one of the most important consumers of its gas and oil exports. Russia’s economy is reliant on oil and gas production; in 2007 the energy sector generated about 64% of its exports revenues. Accordingly, Russia also has to deal with the problem of energy security, but in the perspective that it aims at securing demand and the purchase of its gas and oil resources, especially by the EU. As both parties depend on each other in their energy security there is a case of interdependence in the EU-Russian energy relationship. When examining this relation of interdependence it is interesting not just to regard the present state of affairs but also the trends and future development and how the EU and Russia deal with that. For the analysis the notions of sensitivity and vulnerability are used. The guiding research question of this paper is therefore: What is the degree of sensitivity and vulnerability for the EU and Russia regarding their relation of interdependence in energy security? It is hypothesized that the Russian Federation is more vulnerable, especially on the subject of its political strategy. The concept of interdependence by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye provides the theoretical basis for this paper. In order to conclude this paper, the degrees of sensitivity and vulnerability of the actors are evaluated and the hypothesis is proven right or wrong.