Notes on possible nuclear revival; from Saxony to the World

Members of the SALT. CLAY. ROCK. collective are based in Hungary, Vienna, Berlin and also in the Sachsen city of Leipzig. Thus, several collective members' ties to the Sachsen city keep us keenly aware of regional political developments.

One thing that crossed our desk recently on that topic was the surprising but not-so-surprising announcement by the surging Far Right political party. Always looking for non-sensical but populist sounding ideas to increase their vote margin, the Alternative For Germany recent election campaign made a mixed salad of an election promise, pairing anti-green rhetoric with pro-ecology logic in their drive to get aboard a wider pro-nuclear trend that has emerged as the global energy markets destabilizes besides the world’s shaky geopolitical situation. This, of course, runs in direct contradiction to Germany’s Nuclear phase-out.

While dismissing wind and solar energy sources because of an overblown storage problem, the party argues that the Lausitz region should be home for a renewed German nuclear energy project because the infrastucture is allready there. They dismiss green energy because of questionable arguments around its stability and safety while also implicitly critiquing its  environmental costs inside and outside of Germany (see photo above). All the while they suggest that nuclear is a cheap energy solution that is utilized by much of the world. Their global perspectives and concerns are funny, considering that their politics are otherwise so interested in shutting the doors to the rest of the world. But “energy of the future” imaginaries are so often approximate to around to racist imaginaries such as in the case of Belgium’s atomic imaginary and its impact on the Congo.

But let’s not get too breathless about just one ugly political party’s grievence politics that here shows actual global concern. The Corporate-led green energy transition overall suggests a business as usual transformation to maintain growth rates of core capitalist economies, rather than considering degrowth options that would actually benefit global populations.

This business as usual approach can be seen with the first-ever pro-nuclear announcements coming out of the 2023 Dubai COP28 conference. As a result of this statement including nuclear power as a green renewable, there has been a resurgence in interest uranium mining- both to meet the expected demands for new reactors, and to meet Western efforts to replace Russia and Kazakhstan as major world uranium suppliers.

“According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the world will need up to 100,000 metric tons of uranium per year by 2040, which would mean nearly doubling mining from current levels.”

Though nuclear power story, safety and cost value is the much discussed new type light water modular reactors is still very much up for debate, another thing fueling the 2023 “green” stamped nuclear resurgence is the Biden Administration’s  billion dollars in to assist in the development of new type III+ and light water reactor development in the US. While insisting on the safety for nuclear development, concurrent with the funding was a bipartisan ADVANCE bill passed by the US congress and signed by the President easing regulations and licensing to speed up power plant development.

Regardless of storage and waste issues, the cost-benefit analysis of  green nuclear power are still unclear. Some energy analysts warn that “'slow, risky and costly' mini-nuclear could sap renewables investment” that are better proven green technologies.

And of course, the environmental costs of the nuclear industry as hinted above in the case of the Congo, often fall on people and environments that governments see as neglectable. Thus, in regards to the new uranium gold rush occurring as a result of these developments, many people including indigenous activist living around the Pinyon Plain Mine, are fighting the re-opening of such projects. In the case of the Pinyon Mine, there is still historical memory and commemorations  of the breaching of radioactive storage facilities that leaked out and poisoned the Rio Puerco River flowing through indigenous territories within the USA's New Mexico and Arizona.

Politicians pushing nominally progressive and right wing agendas claim they are bringing jobs, common sense, and even actual environmental innovation to politics, while still actually just pushing large corporate welfare and business as usual in energy policy. As curators and artists, our job is to critically think about the wider cultural implications of most things. While we have doubts about the green energy transition, we also have doubts about new developments in nuclear power.