The head of energy policy for the European Union said recently that the continent will not be able to reach its climate goals without nuclear energy.
At a nuclear power conference in Prague, EU Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger said reactors belong in Europe's energy mix. He added that goals to reduce carbon emissions cannot be achieved without them, although each EU member country has the right to choose its own power sources, Dow Jones reported.
Prior to his current job, Oettinger was a lawyer and politician in Germany, according to his EU curriculum vitae. His stance is not shared with a majority of residents in his home country, though, which began phasing out its reactors following the Fukushima Daiichi accidents in Japan. The continued use of nuclear power remains a contested issue across Europe. France and some Eastern European member countries like the Czech Republic and Slovakia support the technology, while Switzerland has opted to gradually phase it out, and Italy abandoned plans for new units.