nucleareurope participates in Nuclear Talks series

On 23 June 2026, nucleareurope Director General Emmanuel Brutin participated in the fourth iteration of Nuclear Talks, a series of discussions between policymakers and industry leaders on nuclear related topics, hosted in Brussels by EDF in partnership with Euronews.

In his intervention, Emmanuel focused on questions related to the financing of nuclear assets, and addressed the importance of ensuring access to EU funds for the sector. He specifically noted the significant investment plans across the whole nuclear value chain, and stressed the need to support these investments through an equitable financial framework.

“Installed nuclear capacity in the EU is projected to grow from around 100 Gigawatt (GW) today, to close to 150GW by 2050, with significant investments planned for the lifetime extension of existing reactors, large new build, as well as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs). An equitable financial framework which demonstrates EU support for nuclear can considerably facilitate access to private finance, thus supporting the nuclear sector to deliver on these investments.” noted Emmanuel, calling for the EU to remove existing nuclear exclusions from EU funds.

Emmanuel then discussed the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), stressing that nuclear should be explicitly recognised at the same level as renewables across electricity generation, hydrogen, heat, R&D, and fuel-cycle activities. He also noted that the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy should be amended to include the nuclear fuel cycle as an enabling activity, and remove current sunset clauses applying to nuclear.

Emmanuel concluded his intervention by welcoming recent positive policy developments related to nuclear, and calling for concrete actions to ensure a fully technology neutral policy framework in the future.