"Cutting useful subsidies while showing blind confidence in immature technologies are two sides of the same inertia," warns Jean-Yves Pidoux, the former director of the SIL.
Published for the first time by the AES, this tool dedicated to the security of the electricity supply paints a potentially critical picture of the country's situation within a quarter of a century.
"Shouldn't we, as societies, accept engaging in more honest discussions, less laden with emotions and idealism, on this question of nuclear power?" asks Daniella Gorbunova, a journalist at the Fédération des Entreprises Romandes Genève.
At the end of November, an expert report commissioned by the Energy Foundation claimed that the Gösgen nuclear power plant had been affected by a safety flaw since it began operating in 1979. We discuss the issue with Andreas Pautz and Mathieu Hursin, two specialists working at EPFL's LRS.
In its latest report, the Energy Commission of the Swiss Academies of Sciences wished to "provide policymakers and industrial decision-makers as well as the general public with well-founded information, to allow a debate that is as rational as possible" on the future of nuclear power in Switzerland.
Interview with Ronny Kaufmann, general manager of Swisspower, a strategic alliance representing 19 municipal utilities and regional supply companies in Switzerland.
Two opposing models are facing off. On the one hand, high-power reactors such as EPRs, which rely on the centralization of production with high-power units; on the other hand, modern, small reactors with an electrical capacity ranging between 10 MW and 300 MW.
"Nuclear power is a subject that divides, imbued with emotions and political debate. In the face of the challenges of the energy transition and our growing electricity needs, can we afford to exclude this technology permanently?" asks Michael Frank, director of AES.
"To reach carbon neutrality by 2050, it would be necessary to add each year the equivalent of the Grande-Dixence's production, namely 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours," calculates Dominique Rochat, Energy & Infrastructure Project Manager at Economiesuisse.
According to Mathias Schlegel, spokesperson for Greenpeace Switzerland, "The operation of the Aargau power plant will continue in denial of the international environmental conventions signed by Switzerland."
