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Can the European nuclear power industry compete with the Chinese nuclear power industry?
Geoffrey Rothwell
Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development 2024, 8(11), 8715; https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i11.8715
Submitted：21 Aug 2024
Accepted：23 Sept 2024
Published：21 Oct 2024
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Abstract

European commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, told Le Journal du Dimanche in January 2022, “Existing nuclear plants alone will need 50 billion euros of investment from now until 2030. And new generation ones will need 500 billion”. This paper considers whether these values are realistic. Further, it asks whether these investments would yield an internationally competitive European nuclear power infrastructure given that the nuclear power industries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries have lost global nuclear market share to Russian and Chinese firms since 1995.The paper investigates whether the European nuclear industry even with massive investment can compete with the Chinese nuclear industries. It concludes that the European (in particular, the French) nuclear power industry will be unlikely to be cost competitive with the Chinese nuclear power industry unless financing and new plant orders are immediately forthcoming. To achieve carbon neutrality, the issue becomes whether European Union countries can afford indigenous nuclear technologies or will need to import nuclear power plants from Asia.

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