The Netherlands mulls more nuclear energy

September 30, 2020, 7:00AMANS Nuclear Cafe

The government of the Netherlands has released a report, Possible Role of Nuclear in the Dutch Energy Mix in the Future, that answers in the affirmative the question of whether nuclear energy can play an important role in the country’s future energy mix.

The report, released this month by Enco, an Austrian energy research group, was commissioned by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

The Netherlands currently has one nuclear power facility supplying the grid—the Borssele plant, which houses a 482-MWe two-loop pressurized water reactor that entered commercial operation in 1973.

Wise words: The report notes that nuclear energy, both large units and small modular reactors, when compared to variable renewable energy by using the same metrics, is cheaper, able to deliver dispatchable electricity to the grid (and stabilize the grid when needed) in a reliable fashion independent of weather conditions, and has an orders-of-magnitude smaller land footprint than any other source of electricity, especially variable renewable energy.


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