Ban on building nuclear plants being reconsidered

Winter is coming for Switzerland, and the land of snowy mountains and cheese has to make a decision on a controversial energy source.

- Shabana Begum

The leaders and people of the Alpine country - home to the world's oldest operating nuclear power plant - have been going back and forth on how they feel about nuclear energy.

After the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in 2011, the Swiss people in 2017 voted to phase out the nation's existing nuclear reactors over time, never to build a new plant. One of its five reactors was switched off in 2019.

But in August, the government made a sudden U-turn, proposing to overturn the ban on building nuclear plants - to meet its net-zero target and safeguard energy security amid geopolitical tensions. Switzerland's electricity production is dominated by hydropower, at around 57 per cent of the mix in 2023. This was followed by nuclear energy at 32 per cent. Compared with the summer months, hydropower during the winter is weakened by up to 50 per cent because of reduced water flow in rivers and reservoirs. This is when the country mainly imports electricity - nuclear energy from France, and renewables and gas from Germany. "The energy supply situation in Europe has changed since 2022 with Russia's attack on Ukraine and is less stable than before. If there were to be a power shortage in Europe, it might not be possible to import electricity from abroad in sufficient quantities at all times," said Ms Marianne Zund, head of media and politics at the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

And it remains to be seen whether the development of renewable energies will be fast enough to cover the missing capacities from nuclear energy and the growing demand for electricity in time, said the Swiss government, the Federal Council, in August.