(March 10): The European Union (EU) made a “strategic mistake” in turning its back on nuclear energy, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in thinly-veiled criticism of Germany’s decision to close its reactors. “While in 1990 one-third of Europe’s electricity came from nuclear, today it is only close to 15%,” she said at the Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris on Tuesday. Nuclear power provides clean baseload power, which can support the grid when there’s not enough wind or solar output. Von der Leyen said that SMRs should be operational in Europe by the early 2030s. Von der Leyen was German minister for labour and social affairs at the time.

Source: The Edge Markets March 10, 2026 12:29 UTC