More than 30 countries -- including European nations, the United States, Brazil and China -- took part on Thursday in the first-ever summit held by the United Nations' atomic energy agency to promote nuclear as a"clean and reliable source of energy".
The approach is anathema to a number of other European countries -- including Germany and Spain -- and to many environmentalists, who see the drive for nuclear as a harmful distraction from the need to invest massively, and immediately, in renewables. Birol attributed the shift chiefly to the quest for carbon-free power sources but also the search for secure and stable energy following Russia's invasion ofHe said there was"a key role for nuclear", while also acknowledging that the"major part" of carbon-free electricity needed to come from renewables -- solar, wind and hydro power.
Questioned by reporters about nuclear safety risks, French President Emmanuel Macron pointed to France's decades-long record of producing atomic energy"within a framework that is controlled, understood, mature".