{"id":1364523,"date":"2022-03-08T11:43:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T16:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1364523"},"modified":"2022-03-08T11:46:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T16:46:04","slug":"elon-musk-says-europe-should-restart-dormant-nuclear-power-stations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/elon-musk-says-europe-should-restart-dormant-nuclear-power-stations\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk Says Europe Should Restart Dormant Nuclear Power Stations"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Felon-musk-says-europe-should-restart-dormant-nuclear-power-stations%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1364523&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-elon-musk\">Elon Musk<\/a> has said he believes Europe should restart its\u00a0dormant nuclear power stations and boost production in those that are operational as experts fear that Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine could create a shortage of gas across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Taking to Twitter on Sunday, the Tesla CEO said that\u00a0\u201cnuclear is vastly better\u201d for global warming than burning hydrocarbons,\u00a0also known as\u00a0fossil fuels, for energy.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/ne\/articles\/3-reasons-why-nuclear-clean-and-sustainable\">U.S. Office of Nuclear Energy,<\/a>\u00a0nuclear is a zero-emission clean energy source and the\u00a0second-largest source of low-carbon electricity in the world behind hydropower.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully, it is now extremely obvious that Europe should restart dormant nuclear power stations and increase power output of existing ones. This is *critical* to national and international security,\u201d Musk wrote, adding that fears of radiation from nuclear power stations are inflated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor those who (mistakenly) think this is a radiation risk, pick what you think is the worst location. I will travel there &#038; eat locally grown food on TV. I did this in Japan many years ago, shortly after Fukushima. Radiation risk is much, much lower than most people believe,\u201d Musk continued.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has led to oil prices soaring to new highs in the UK and the EU, threatening to\u00a0further push up heating bills for millions of households.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iea.org\/reports\/russian-supplies-to-global-energy-markets\/gas-market-and-russian-supply-2#abstract\">International Energy Agency<\/a>, Europe and the\u00a0United Kingdom have increased their reliance on\u00a0Russian gas supplies over the last decade, with the country supplying roughly one-third of\u00a0Europe\u2019s gas demand.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, nuclear power plants across Europe have been steadily closing down, despite the fact that the EU depends on nuclear power for\u00a0one-quarter of its electricity, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.world-nuclear.org\/information-library\/country-profiles\/others\/european-union.aspx\">World Nuclear Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/features\/2022-01-31\/europe-s-nuclear-power-plants-are-disappearing-just-as-energy-crisis-hits-hard#:~:text=Reactor%20Status&#038;text=Europe%20will%20need%20to%20invest,the%20EU&#039;s%20internal%20market%20commissioner.\">Bloomberg,<\/a> citing a compilation of data from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, reported that\u00a0Europe is on track to house over 100 shutdown nuclear reactors by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>The declining number of power plants comes as European nations reevaluate their relationship with nuclear energy in the wake of the\u00a0Fukushima\u00a0meltdown and a move toward more environmentally-friendly energy sources.<\/p>\n<p>In an effort to meet the growing demand for electricity and achieve its carbon reduction targets, Europe would need to invest 500 billion euros ($568 billion) in nuclear over the next 30 years,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lejdd.fr\/Economie\/thierry-breton-il-faudra-investir-500-milliards-deuros-dans-les-centrales-nucleaires-de-nouvelle-generation-4086762\">according to\u00a0Thierry Breton<\/a>, the EU\u2019s\u00a0internal market commissioner, while existing\u00a0nuclear plants would need 50 billion euros of investment through 2030.<\/p>\n<p>Breton also said that the\u00a0inclusion of nuclear energy in the taxonomy is crucial for the sector to attract the necessary capital it needs.<\/p>\n<p>His comments came as the larger EU in February released plans that would allow\u00a0certain natural gas and nuclear energy projects to have a place in the EU Taxonomy, a classification system that labels\u00a0certain investments as environmentally sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s latest comments come after he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/elon-musk-urges-us-to-increase-oil-gas-output-immediately-due-to-russias-invasion-of-ukraine_4320746.html\">called on the United States<\/a> to increase oil and gas output \u201cimmediately\u201d amid Russia\u2019s invasion of neighboring Ukraine in an effort to become less dependent on Russian oil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHate to say it, but we need to increase oil &#038; gas output immediately,\u201d the businessman wrote. \u201cExtraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil &#038; gas exports.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-katabella-roberts\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk has said he believes Europe should restart its\u00a0dormant nuclear power stations and boost production in those that are operational as experts fear that Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine could<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1364523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}