Nuclear Forum working on roadmap for the development of nuclear in the EU

The latest meeting of the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF), took place in Prague (Czech Republic) on 22-23 May. The second meeting of the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) was officially opened by EU President, José Manuel Barroso, together with Mirek Topolanek, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic; Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia and Gediminas Kirkilas, Prime Minister of Lithuania.

Also in attendance were EU Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, senior EC officials, MEPs, industry leaders and a broad range of representatives of civil society. The focus of the meeting was the work of the three ENEF Working Groups (WGs) that were established at the first ENEF meeting, in Bratislava (Slovakia), last November, namely the Opportunities, Risks and Transparency WGs.

At the Prague meeting, the chairmen presented synthesis reports on the work of the working groups that were debated by the nuclear forum. FORATOM and the whole nuclear industry have been closely involved in the drafting of these reports. They will be used to determine the main issues that have to be tackled and the appropriate solutions that are required to promote the continued development of nuclear energy in Europe.

The creation of ENEF was initiated by the March 2007 European Council, when Member States suggested “that broad discussion takes place among all relevant stakeholders on the opportunities and risks of nuclear energy.” The Forum’s creation shows that nuclear will now be treated on a level footing with other major energy sources that have had similar forums for some time. Nuclear energy’s contribution, as part of an overall energy mix that includes renewables, to ensuring security of energy supply and combating climate change has now been officially recognised.

ENEF should provide advice to European policy makers, mainly in the European Institutions on: security of energy supply, incentives for investment, EU legislative issues, public opinion, R&D, knowledge management, safety and waste management. It is also expected to work in collaboration with other newly-created bodies the Sustainable Nuclear Energy- Technology Platform (SNE-TP), and the High Level Group on Safety and Waste management (HLG).

The Forum aims to promote an inclusive, transparent and non-ideological debate on nuclear between all the relevant stakeholders. It gathers for the first time a broad range of stakeholders – the nuclear industry, public authorities, the financial community and various sections of civil society.- in a debate on the future of nuclear energy in Europe.

At the first meeting in Bratislava (Slovakia), it was agreed to establish three working groups that are in charge of analysing three main issues: the opportunities of nuclear (financing, competitiveness), the risks of nuclear (safety, waste management, training and education), and information and transparency (better information, trust and confidence/ implementation of the Aarhus convention, best practices). The working groups have already met twice since the Bratislava meeting and are in the process of drafting proposals in order to enable ENEF to provide a roadmap for the continued development of nuclear energy in the European Union. Every working group has created subgroups in order to dwell on specific topics (1).

The Nuclear Forum is taking concrete steps to provide guidelines to help nuclear power contribute to the development of Europe’s low-carbon economy. It is more than ever essential to take part in ENEF in order to shape Europe’s energy future.