How climate change threatens Europe’s nuclear renaissance

The risks seen across Europe this summer come as nuclear power experiences a comeback in popularity. Across the globe, nuclear generation could triple by 2050, fueled by a growing desire for homegrown electricity, rising power demand and decarbonization efforts. In the United States, the Trump administration wants to quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050, in part to account for the explosion of power-hungry data centers.

Europe, the fastest-warming continent, is particularly exposed to climate risks because many of its reactors were built along inland rivers or depend on cooling ponds that are vulnerable to drought.

“The temperature increases within Europe have been among the highest in the world,” said Brent Wanner, head of the power sector unit at the International Energy Agency. “So Europe would see some of these impacts first.”

Also … jellyfish invasions

Europe’s nuclear fleet was constructed for a different climate. “Almost all nuclear power plants were designed in the 1970s, 1980s,” Högselius said.

That’s also the case for reactors in many other parts of the world, though the risks differ from continent to continent. 

“Over 70% of installed capacity in operation or under construction is in three regions — Eastern North America, Western and Central Europe and East Asia — all of which will face a wide variety of climate hazards in the future, including extreme heat conditions, heavy precipitation, coastal and river floods and tropical cyclones,” the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in 2022.