Switzerland must be able to build new nuclear power plants. As announced last year, the Federal Council confirmed its position in its message in Parliament on Wednesday on the counter-project on the popular “Stop to Blackout” initiative, despite the criticisms in consultation.
The “electricity for everyone at all times (blackout) initiative requires that all forms of electrical production respecting the environment and the climate be authorized. The committee thus wishes to reopen the door to the atom, by focusing on new technologies that make power plants safer.
The Federal Council supports this goal, he wrote in a press release. Nuclear energy will thus remain an option to ensure long -term the safety of the energy supply of Switzerland. But it does not consider it necessary to modify the Constitution for this, it is enough to modify the law on nuclear energy.
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Concretely, the indirect government counter-project plans to repeal without replacing them the two provisions relating to the prohibition to grant general authorizations for new nuclear power plants, supported by the people in 2017.
Thus, in the future, general authorizations may in principle be granted for nuclear power plants. This would cover the possibility of insufficient development of renewable energies, a seasonal storage of incomplete electricity and a lack of alternatives to produce electricity while respecting the climate.
No project in progress
The Federal Council did not retouch its project following the consultation. But he entered the matters on some requested, he specifies.
The counter-project does not thus consist in deciding to build new nuclear power plants, since there is currently no concrete construction project. It is therefore not a question of approaching funding, questions specific to a project or adaptations of the authorization procedure.
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In addition, the development of renewable electricity production must continue rigorously, according to the government. Renewable energies are not incompatible with new nuclear power plants.
The Federal Council says it is “convinced that the counter-project does not in any way compromise the climate of investments or the security of planning with regard to the development of renewable energies”. The grants provided for in the energy law will remain available for renewable electricity production technologies.
Different scenarios
The next energy prospects that will be published by the end of 2027 will provide a strategic and technical inventory to guide the future energy policy, the press release said.
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Different scenarios concerning possible developments until 2060 will be studied there and will also take into account the use of nuclear power plants in the future for electricity production. As is the case for many technologies, nuclear energy also includes risks which must be minimized, concludes the Federal Council.
Currently, the four nuclear power plants in service provide approximately a third of total electricity production in Switzerland. They all have an unlimited authorization and can continue to be exploited as long as they are safe.
ats/jfe