Greece will examine the prospect of adding nuclear power to its existing energy mix, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in his address to the second Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris. He acknowledged that Greece is not a nuclear country. “We explored this possibility in the 1960s and 1970s, but we never made the commitment to nuclear energy. It was always a bit too expensive, a bit too different from what we were looking for. We also benefited from access to very cheap brown coal, lignite, so we never made the choice to go nuclear.”
He added: “Twenty years ago, we generated more than half of our electricity from coal. Today we generate more than half of our electricity from wind and solar. Renewables have turned us from a net electricity importer to a net electricity exporter. They have lowered our prices and strengthened our energy security.”
However, “I recognise a basic reality highlighted by President Macron and by other colleagues. We cannot accomplish all the things we care about in Europe – strategic autonomy, economic competitiveness, decarbonisation – without nuclear energy.”
Noting that Europe in recent years had turned away from nuclear power, he said: “It was one of our biggest strategic mistakes. Here is a staggering statistic: in two decades, nuclear output in the European Union has declined by 276 TWh. In 2023, our total European solar output was 254 TWh. So, all the solar panels that we have installed in the EU over the past 20 years did not even make up for the loss from nuclear. This was an own goal. But the tide is turning. Nuclear energy is clearly having a comeback.”
He continued: “I came to Paris today to announce that Greece is also turning the page. It is time for my country to explore whether nuclear energy, and specifically small modular reactors, can play a role in the Greek energy system. We will set up a high-level ministerial committee to make a definite recommendation to the government on this front. This is a common-sense position. Nuclear energy is changing quickly. There are rapid advances in technology, there is tremendous innovation. And we know that our need for electricity is only going to grow. So no matter how much we expand renewables, we will need long-term predictable baseload power. No technology can match what nuclear can offer us.”
He accepted that nuclear power presents challenges including a divided public opinion, loss of critical expertise, complex regulations long timelines and cost. “But these are problems that we have created ourselves and they are problems we can solve. This is the only way forward.”
He concluded by pointing to a specific use-case that should be part of the conversation. “It’s a topic Greece cares a lot about, and I’m referring to nuclear power in shipping. This is a proven technology that is already used for decades in military and other niche applications. At this point, we have no credible solutions to decarbonise shipping. Nuclear should be part of this conversation as well. It is a topic in which Greece plans to lead, separately from whether nuclear might have a role to play within Greece’s own system…. Whether nuclear will end up playing a role in Greece remains to be seen. But at a time of great geopolitical upheaval, all options must be on the table. Our task is to make nuclear part of the solution again.”
