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According to the Our World in Data website, coal remains the world’s largest single source of electrical power, generating about 34 per cent, followed by natural gas (22 per cent), hydroelectricity (14 per cent), and nuclear (9 per cent), followed by wind power (8 per cent) and solar (7 per cent).

However, recent events in the Middle East have reinforced the need to shift to nuclear power.

Separately, the Trump Administration has accelerated the expansion of nuclear power in the United States, as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to reindustrialise the nation and end the United States’ dependence on imported energy.

The US Government has committed several billion dollars to breathe new life into the American nuclear sector through eight Presidential Executive Orders, putting the nation on the path to a nuclear energy renaissance.

These involve large-scale investment in advanced reactor development, bold efforts to remove regulatory barriers to new power stations, deployment of next-generation small modular nuclear reactors, new life for retired nuclear plants, including the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania and the Palisades plant in Michigan, and major strides in securing America’s nuclear fuel supply chain.

In Japan, which closed all its nuclear reactors after the Fukushima nuclear power station was seriously damaged by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011, the country is now poised to bring all reactors back online and rapidly expand its nuclear power industry.

Japan’s critical dependence on imported sources of energy – natural gas from Russia, and oil and gas from the Middle East – have decisively focused public opinion on the need for energy independence.

Crucially, the Japanese Government has learned the lessons of Fukushima and has established a nuclear regulatory authority which is independent of both the nuclear power industry and the government.

Japan’s first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has set a goal to double Japan’s nuclear power production by 2040.

Europe is moving in the same direction. At the recent European Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described Europe’s 2011 decision to abandon nuclear energy as a “strategic mistake”.

She said that, in 1990, Europe produced a third of its electricity from nuclear power. That has now fallen to an average of 15 per cent, leaving the continent “completely dependent on expensive and volatile imports” of fossil fuels, much of which came from Russia and the Middle East.

Europe is therefore facing soaring energy prices and reduced supply. To meet the challenge, the European Commission has committed €330 million ($A538 million) to expand nuclear energy production across Europe.

The British Labour Government, long a supporter of alternatives to oil and gas, has also confirmed its strong support for the expansion of the nuclear power industry.

Rolls-Royce, a leading British manufacturer of luxury cars and jet engines, is also the manufacturer of nuclear power plants to all British nuclear submarines. It has been working for years on small modular reactors (SMRs) for civilian use and is about to commission its first SMR.

Faced with the soaring cost of fossil fuels, there has been a complete switch in sentiment by both governments and people in favour of nuclear energy for electricity generation.

Further reading:

• “Worldwide use of nuclear energy to generate electricity” by News Weekly team, News Weekly, 13 March 2024
• “Hold green groups accountable on nuclear energy” by Patrick J. Byrne, News Weekly, 22 March 2023.