Unlocking financing for nuclear energy infrastructure in the Covid-19 economic recovery

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had significant impacts on the global economy and energy sector. It has also underlined the importance of electricity reliability and resilience during major disruptions. With governments considering a broad range of options for economic recovery and job creation, it is becoming increasingly clear that stimulus packages have the opportunity to support energy systems that both fulfil these criteria while meeting long-term environmental goals and energy security. The NEA is examining the regulatory and operational impacts of the crisis, and working closely with its members to enable exchanges of policy approaches and best practices around the world. As part of these efforts, the NEA has issued this policy brief to explore the role that nuclear energy can play in the post-COVID-19 recovery, whilst also supporting the path towards a truly sustainable and environmentally responsible energy future. The key messages of this policy brief are the following: - Governments should incentivize investments in resilient low-carbon energy infrastructure, such as nuclear energy, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. - Proper policy and market frameworks to incentivize investment in essential infrastructure that supports low carbon electricity security and economic development are needed. - Transitional, targeted government support for nuclear energy projects will be indispensable to unlock the benefits of nuclear energy in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. - Government support can and should be leveraged to attract cost-effective private financing to deliver nuclear energy infrastructure projects. - There is currently a window of opportunity for governments to support sustained cost reductions in nuclear energy projects through timely new build decisions - thus reinforcing the process of learning by doing and allowing these designs to move along their learning and cost curves