As part of its Green Deal Industrial Plan,[1]. the Commission proposed the “Net-Zero Industry Act,” which defines a list of “net-zero technologies” that benefit from a number of measures, like faster permitting. Conventional nuclear energy (so-called “Generations I-III” reactors) is not included as a net-zero technology in the Proposal. Only “Small modular reactors” and “advanced technologies able to produce energy from nuclear processes with minimal waste from the fuel cycle”—thought to include a number of advanced modular reactors or Generation IV reactors and nuclear fusion—are included.
However, first, benefits are mostly limited to technologies ready for full-scale commercial deployment, restricting the number of nuclear projects which could immediately benefit from the Net-Zero Industry Act (once adopted). Second, nuclear energy is not considered “strategic,” such that nuclear projects will not be able to benefit from the shortest procedures and will not contribute to the Act’s target that “strategic net-zero technology” capacity reach 40% of the Union’s deployment needs by 2030. The French Government has already signaled its intent to “widen the scope of technologies covered, since nuclear technologies are only partially covered in this regulation.”[2] See the Cleary Blog Post for more information on the Net-Zero Industry Act.
Cleary posts:
- April 14, 2023: The Net-Zero Industry Act: The European Commission’s Latest Initiative To Scale up the Clean Energy Transition
[1] See Cleary Blog..
[2] See P. Messad, “Paris irked by nuclear’s ambival