Although Greece is a country where successive governments over the last 50 years or so have firmly stood against nuclear power,and public polls indicate that the large majority of the population is negatively inclined, the subject has somehow resurfaced over the last 18 months largely propelled by concerns arising from the government’s decarbonisation programme and climate change anxieties. A well timed and well organised the initiative to broach the discussion on nuclear power options for Greece was taken by the Athlos Energy start up in a workshop organised in downtown Athens on October 21.
Although Greece is a country where successive governments over the last 50 years or so have firmly stood against nuclear power,and public polls indicate that the large majority of the population is negatively inclined, the subject has somehow resurfaced over the last 18 months largely propelled by concerns arising from the government’s decarbonisation programme and climate change anxieties. A well timed and well organised the initiative to broach the discussion on nuclear power options for Greece was taken by the Athlos Energy start up in a workshop organised in downtown Athens on October 21.
The Workshop covered the latest developments and advances in nuclear power at global and EU level and started with a keynote address delivered by Fanny Tonos Paniagua from the IAEA. This was followed by a series of interventions by well known experts including Alex Borovskis, of Helixos, Kalev Kallemets, the CEO of Fermi Energia,Berta Picamal Vicente,Legal and International Relations Director of Nucleareurope, and Barton’s Sosnik, Chief Nuclear Officer of PEJ.
A host of other experts and energy professionals took part in a well managed Panel Discussion while the second keynote address was contributed by Mr.Nikos Tsafos, who is the chief energy advisor to the Greek Prime Minister.
This was followed by a panel discussion which was moderated by Mr.Thomas Lamnidis, chair of Lamnidis Law Office and a long standing Partner of IENE.
The panel included Prof.Athanasios Dagoumas, President of the Regulatory Energy Authority of Greece, Prof. Marios Anagnostakis of the National Technical University’s of Athens, Dr.Christos Housiadas, Chairman of the Greek Aromic Energy Authority and Prof. Manolis Kakaras, of NTUA and also a Partner of IENE
From the address of Nikos Tsafos and the panel discussion which followed it transpires that neither the government nor the various institutions involved in the country’s energy sector are ready yet to discuss the possibility of introducing nuclear power as an option in order to provide much needed clean electricity base load to meet Greece’s expanding energy needs. The high cost and perennial construction costs overruns involved in building conventional nuclear reactors and the uncertainty surrounding the development of Small Nuclear Modular Reactors (SMR’s), were cited as strong disincentives for enabling a serious examination for the introduction of nuclear power to Greece to move ahead.
The only positive outcome from the Athlos Energy workshop is the apparent willingness, on the part of state institutions, to start following much closer developments in nuclear power,especially in Europe, and also examine the prospects for a potential tie up, through long term PPA’s with Bulgaria’s and Romania’s nuclear power industry.
