Jadrová energetika vo svete a v krajinách V4

A presentation of The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014
A debate organised by the Prague office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Greenpeace Slovakia

29 October 2014, from 14:00 until 17:00
Cinema of the National Council of the Slovak Republic,
Námestie A. Dubčeka 1, Bratislava

This year’s World Nuclear Industry Status Report points to the fact that nuclear energy’s share of global production of commercial primary energy has declined to a record low of 4.4%. More and more projects to build nuclear blocks (49) are experiencing multi-year delays and cost overruns, while the price of electricity produced from nuclear energy is not economically competitive without large subsidies and indirect state support. In 2014, Spain was added to the list of countries that produce more electricity from new installations of renewable energy sources than from nuclear power plants (Brazil, China, Germany, India and Japan).

The energy plans of the Visegrád countries seem to run counter to the global trend. Although in the Czech Republic the tender to expand the Temelín NPP was cancelled when the Czech state refused to guarantee purchase prices for nuclear power, the idea of constructing new blocks does not seem to have been completely abandoned. In Slovakia, the expansion of the Mochovce NPP continues to suffer from time and cost overruns, and the state is searching for a partner to renovate the Jaslovské Bohunice NPP, although as yet without success. Hungary has progressed furthest with its new nuclear plans, having signed an agreement on the expansion of the Paks NPP with Russia, from whom it also borrowed EUR 10 billion for the project. Poland’s nuclear plans took concrete shape in January 2014, when the government adopted a new programme to build the country’s first nuclear power station by 2024 (and a second block by 2035). At least in the area of energy, the Visegrád countries truly seem to be thinking along the same lines. Questions remain, however, as to whether their plans make economic sense, and to what extent they have taken into account the dynamically transforming environment of European energy.