Europe to spend €241 billion on its nuclear power plants

New technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion, will require additional investments.

Projects for the installation of new nuclear power plants in Europe, or for the renovation of existing ones, will cost 241,000 million euros over the next 25 years, according to the European Commission, which is analysing the plans of the member states in this area.

Of that figure, 205,000 million euros will be allocated to new large-scale plants, while 36,000 million will finance the extension of the useful life of existing reactors in the European Union (EU), Brussels reported on Friday. New technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion, will require additional investments. The analysis presented by Brussels provides a snapshot of the current state and future prospects of the European nuclear industry. The Commission’s forecasts are based on a scenario under which EU countries will produce 109 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from utility-scale nuclear power plants in 2050, which is a modest increase from the current 98 GW.

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