Portugal’s Political Chaos Could Be Big For Nuclear Energy

A couple look out at the skyline of Lisbon, Portugal, from a public garden. “Nuclear is something that we don’t discuss in Portugal, but the energy transition could turn into one of the central points of the next election,” he said after the event. “Renewable energy, namely wind power plants and photovoltaic power plants, don’t solve the problem.” Portugal, he said, is already using nuclear power thanks to its grid’s connections to Spain, which generates roughly one-fifth of its electricity from seven large-scale reactors scattered around the country. “If Spain shuts down nuclear power plants, obviously this would increase the risk of a supply shortage in Portugal,” Mira Amaral said. If the countries’ shared grid needs to meet Spain’s much larger electricity demand without the help of reactors, “it will be more difficult for the Spanish network to help the Portuguese network.” Since Portugal’s grid is relatively small, Mira Amaral said the best option for building the country’s first nuclear plant would be to enter into a joint project with Spain, or else wait for small modular reactors ― which many in the nuclear industry hope will make building atomic power stations cheaper and faster through assembly-line repetition ― to hit the market.