The Federal Council has presented the key points of its message on the “Stop Blackout” initiative. The indirect counter-proposal, which seeks to remove the ban on new nuclear power plants from the law, is in contrast to the will of the Swiss people. They have repeatedly expressed their support for clean, domestic electricity from solar, wind and hydropower. New nuclear power plants are in direct competition with renewables and may prevent their rapid and consistent expansion.
It is well known that nuclear energy poses serious health risks for people and the environment and creates dangerous dependencies. The clear “yes” to the Energy Strategy 2050 in 2017 therefore set clear goals for the energy policy path: the Swiss population wants clean, renewable energy and the phase-out of nuclear power. This is what the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES) wrote in a press release. With the clear approval of the Electricity Act on June 9, 2024, Switzerland repeatedly and clearly spoke out in favor of the expansion of renewable energies and the phase-out of nuclear power.
Nuclear power will no longer be necessary
If the Electricity Act is consistently implemented, all Swiss nuclear power plants could be replaced with renewable energy as early as 2035. This is shown by calculations by renowned energy scientists from several Swiss universities (SWEET-EDGE-Bericht; ETH, EPFL, Uni GE, Uni BE). Nils Epprecht, Managing Director of SES, emphasises: “Switzerland can soon cover its electricity needs with renewable energy. But only if we now concentrate fully on expansion.”
Nuclear power plant construction is expensive and sabotages the energy transition
The costs of building a nuclear power plant are unpredictable. Not a single one is built anywhere in the world without enormous state aid and cost guarantees. If the federal budget is not to be further burdened, new nuclear power plants in Switzerland could either not be financed at all or only at the expense of renewable energies. There are already voices from the bourgeois camp saying that any nuclear power plants could be co-financed from the fund for promoting renewable energies. This would call into question their rapid and consistent expansion. Nils Epprecht therefore judges: “We can only spend the Swiss franc once: either on renewables that are available safely and promptly, or on new nuclear power plants that may supply electricity in twenty years. With its decision, the Federal Council is sabotaging secure energy supplies and the rapid phase-out of oil and gas.”
Nuclear power is often touted as a climate-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. But according to ProNature Nuclear power plants are neither climate-friendly nor biodiversity-friendly. The mining of uranium, the processing of fuel rods and the construction and dismantling of nuclear power plants require immense amounts of energy and emit CO2. The waste heat that is removed is also, according to the WWF anything but unproblematic for the environment.
