Kurz
Eine neue Studie von 19 Energieexperten der ETH Zürich und des PSI zeigt, dass neue Kernkraftwerke unter den gegenwärtigen Bedingungen nicht konkurrenzfähig wären.
Bei entsprechender politischer Unterstützung und geringeren Baukosten im Vergleich zu den derzeit verfügbaren Baukosten könnten sich neue Kernkraftwerke rechnen und würden die Stromimporte im Winter reduzieren. Dennoch bleiben ein effizienter Stromhandel mit den Nachbarländern und der Ausbau der Photovoltaik auch bei der Errichtung neuer Kernkraftwerke unabdingbar.
Die Ergebnisse der Studie basieren auf vier verschiedenen Energiemodellen. Wo diese Modelle – trotz einiger Unterschiede – in die gleiche Richtung weisen, gibt es belastbare Erkenntnisse, die als Grundlage für gesellschaftliche und politische Diskussionen dienen könnten.
Direkt aus dem Artikel
https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2026/06/when-new-nuclear-power-plants-are-worth-it-in-switzerland.html
Von yesat
9 Kommentare
So nuclear power could make sense if we ignore current construction costs, the political climate and heavily subsidize them.
And people get emotional because nuclear power is apparently the future…
IIRC (this is based on me remembering talks don’t have sources), that was the primary reason for why we didn’t get any new nuclear plants in Switzerland and France cancelled a lot. It wasn’t just worth enough to go for it with the general political climate between NIMBY and ecological critics.
Also as part of this study it was shown we can reach our 2050 energy goals without building a new plant.
If we were going to build new nuclear, it should have started at least a decade ago.
For the longest time, enough grid-scale energy storage to overcome *Dunkelflaute* was infeasible. Now it’s far more feasible in the short, medium, and long term than waiting decades to get authorization (*Blackout stoppen* initiative next year), planning, financing, approvals, construction, and commissioning that new Nuclear power would require.
Why can’t we let the Chinese build our new reactors for cheap?
„efficient electricity trading with neighbouring countries“. The same countries who also have a rising need for energy, only made worse by EU regulations? Do we want to be more dependent and just hope and pray the prices will remain the same?
And no wonder it’s not profitable when there has been almost no investment into the field except for more and more restrictions.
So what if it isn’t perfectly profitable, it gives us security and stability. We could also just import everything else. The majority of Production in switzerland is surely not profitable in comparison so just cut all subsidies and import it all. /s
What I don’t understand is why there’ll still be a winter deficit with new nuclear? This doesn’t make any sense
Even if we build overcapacity – well be able to export it to Italy to make profit
Dude, the study is simply saying to change the current conditions. Nothing new under the sun.
What I love about articles on this topic is that the problem is so complex that no matter what the report says, there will always be people drawing opposite conclusions from it. An to the extend, it’s justified.
People are already writing about „heavy subsidization“ of nuclear. Sure. But what about the subsidization of photovoltaics, which the authors of the report also write about?
Photovoltaics is probably the future, dont get me wrong, but annual generation is misleading. It does not solve the winter demand problem. Why do you think Switzerland imports electricity in winter? Because it is gloomy here. Great, we can have a perfectly carbon-neutral grid on paper, and then import electricity from Germany when we need it, including from a system that still burns brown coal. Amazing. On paper, we are green.
And before someone says „but nuclear fuel is also imported“. Yes, but nuclear fuel dependence is not the same as electricity-import dependence. Fuel can be stored. Electricity during a cold, dark winter evening cannot be imported from a spreadsheet.
And what about full reliance on the European grid? What if there is actually a war in Europe? What happens to grid balancing when Russia starts shooting at power plants in Poland or Germany? Do you think the supply will still be ok?
I am not saying we should build nuclear at any price. But pretending that PV plus imports is automatically a more serious solution than nuclear plus renewables is also ridiculous. The key is to balance costs and risks.
While I’m open to the technology and think it shouldn’t be forbidden, it should compete against solar etc. on a fair level. By fully financing all costs by the power providers. If we want a stable energy system we have to pay the premium.