The Cost of Banning Nuclear in Belgium

Belgium recently made a very wrong decision to close down all of its nuclear power plants by 2025.

The University of Antwerp has published a study that showcases how big of a mistake exactly this will be.

In a nutshell, researchers found that closing down the Belgian nuclear power plants would result in energy shortages, and therefore much higher electricity prices because the energy (up to 1/3rd of it) will have to be imported – if there is somewhere for that energy to be imported from. It would mean more reliance on “natural” gas, therefore higher sensitivity to price fluctuations in natural gas. An increased spending on energy infrastructure (by at least 30%). And it would also make it practically impossible for Belgium to get to its climate goals on time.

Researchers took the conservative route, too, by the way. They used historic energy demand numbers, as oppose to factoring in the increased demand from expanding digitalisation in Belgium, growing demand for EVs, etc.

Had they taken all of that into account, too, the numbers would’ve been even more shocking.

Wokeism is a mental sickness and I’m sticking to my opinion about it.

source: brussels times