As Public Opinion Shifts, Greece Eyes Benefits of Nuclear Power

When Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told an Athens energy conference in June that Greece “should be prepared to join the nuclear alliance”, left-wing critics warned he risked opening a “nuclear Pandora’s box”.

The response from the opposition SYRIZA party set the tone of an increasingly heated debate in a country with no experience of nuclear energy, but where public support appears to be growing.

In a highly contentious move in 2022, the European Union classified investments in gas and nuclear power plants as climate friendly, saying it would aid the transition away from coal.

Mitsotakis, whose government has a target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, told the June conference he saw “no way for the world to get to carbon neutrality without nuclear” and mooted the possibility of investing in nuclear-powered commercial shipping, “at least as an option”. He also noted “very interesting developments” in the development of Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs.