(Bloomberg) -- The Swiss government wants to cancel a ban on building new nuclear plants that’s been in place since 2018.
Switzerland currently has four aging nuclear plants, and also relies heavily on renewable sources for its energy supply. At a meeting on Wednesday, the government announced it will propose the changes to current legislation by the end of the year, with parliament set to discuss them in 2025 before the issue is likely put to a referendum.
Discussions over Switzerland’s nuclear future mirror a Europe-wide debate. Some governments in Eastern Europe have presented plans for new plants, while many in Western Europe have opted to delay phasing out nuclear power without proposing new facilities.
The Swiss ban on nuclear plants was originally introduced in 2018, following safety worries that had been triggered by an accident at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan in 2011. But such concerns have recently been overshadowed by Switzerland’s decision to reach net zero by 2050, as well as questions about the country’s ability to secure enough energy supply in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Swiss government said in a statement that the existing ban was “not compatible with the goal of technological openness and also poses risks for the decommissioning of existing plants.”
(Adds details on Swiss nuclear history throughout)
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