Creating a level playing field and pathways for financing nuclear power in Europe has been one of the most important results of the inaugural Nuclear Energy Summit (NES) in Brussels, when governments, the nuclear power industry and high-level European Commission representatives committed to new mechanisms to achieve this.

“My biggest takeaway [from NES] apart from the nuclear industry declaration, is that the commission president Ursula von der Leyen has been openly supportive of nuclear power [in the European energy mix],” Christopher Eckerberg, president of Brussels-based industry group nucleareurope, told NucNet. “We would have not heard this two years ago,” he said.

Kadri Simson, EU commissionner for energy, said at the 21 March summit that the commission has presented a power market design framework for financing, which will be adopted by the European Parliament in April. “We are also investing in the skills side of the equation to train the existing workforce,” she added.