Europe’s Nuclear U-Turn: The Moment the Lights Almost Went Out

In September 2022, the furnaces at Slovakia’s Slovalco aluminum smelter went dark.

Not metaphorically.

Literally.

The heat that once roared through that plant, the heat that forged metal, paid wages, and sustained families, vanished.

Electricity prices had climbed so violently that producing aluminum became, in the words of executives, “mathematically impossible.”

Hundreds of workers were sent home.

An entire region felt its heartbeat slow.

Across Europe, a chilling question began to surface:

If we cannot afford to power our factories, what exactly are we defending?

That shuttered smelter was more than an industrial casualty. It was a warning. A reminder that energy security is not an environmental talking point or a political slogan.

It is survival.

And in early 2026, Europe has come face-to-face with a truth that stings. Sovereignty without energy is an illusion.

The Day Europe Discovered Its Weakness

For years, Europe built prosperity on imported fuel.

Cheap Russian gas flowed through pipelines like an invisible subsidy. Factories hummed. Homes stayed warm. Politicians congratulated themselves on transition plans and climate targets.

Then came the war in Ukraine.

Pipelines constricted. Prices exploded.

By 2025, Russian pipeline gas had largely disappeared from Europe’s energy map, replaced by far more expensive liquefied natural gas shipments.

Today, Europe imports between 85% and 90% of its natural gas.

Pause on that number… Up to ninety percent.

That level of dependence is exposure dressed up as convenience.

At the same time, Europe accelerated wind and solar. Yet another dependency quietly took shape.

China manufactures roughly 92% of the world’s solar panels and more than 80% of wind turbines. It refines about 90% of rare earth elements that clean technology depends on.

Europe escaped Moscow’s pipelines only to find itself staring at Beijing’s supply chains.

Energy had become a geopolitical choke point.

The lesson was brutal and clarifying.

If you do not control your power, someone else does.

Germany’s Public Admission

No country illustrates this shift more vividly than Germany.

For years, Berlin championed its nuclear phase-out. The last reactors were ceremonially shut down. The applause was loud and confident.

Applause does not power a grid.

In January 2026, Germany’s new Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, delivered a blunt confession. Closing nuclear plants had been a serious strategic mistake.

He warned that Germany lacked sufficient generation capacity. Electricity prices required heavy subsidies to remain tolerable. The energy transition had become the most expensive in the world.

Strip away the rhetoric, and one thing remained… the math no longer worked.

Germany’s pivot rippled across the continent.

For years, Berlin resisted granting nuclear energy equal status with renewables inside European Union policy frameworks. That resistance created tension with France, where nuclear supplies roughly 65% to 70% of electricity.

Now there is alignment.

Chancellor Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron issued joint commitments to technological neutrality, meaning nuclear would stand alongside wind and solar as a legitimate clean power source.

A taboo that stood for decades cracked open.

Once it cracked, it did not hold.

The Renaissance Few Expected

Across Europe, reactors once destined for retirement are being extended.

Belgium reversed its phase-out law.

Sweden is drafting plans for new reactors.

Poland, Czechia, and Romania are accelerating nuclear build-outs with Western partners.

Brussels updated its green finance taxonomy to classify nuclear as a transitional sustainable energy source.

The reason is straightforward.

Nuclear power produces large amounts of steady electricity around the clock, regardless of weather or geopolitical tension.

France understood this decades ago.

Finland offered the latest proof. When Finland’s Olkiluoto-3 reactor came online in 2023, it supplied about 14% of the nation’s electricity. The country moved from a heavy importer to net self-sufficiency almost overnight.

One reactor changed the math.

No subsidy. No promise. A machine that runs.

Why Nuclear Is Back in the Conversation

Here is the reality most energy debates sidestep.

Wind and solar are remarkable technologies. They are also intermittent.

When the wind stalls and the sky darkens, the grid still demands power. Industrial furnaces do not pause for a cloudy week.

Nuclear reactors deliver baseload output day and night.

Unlike solar panels or turbines, which require large quantities of rare minerals processed abroad, nuclear plants rely primarily on steel, concrete, and uranium. Uranium supply chains are more diversified, and fuel can be stockpiled for years.

Gas must flow continuously.

That difference matters.

It turns nuclear from a philosophical debate into a strategic calculation.

The Industrial Wildcard

There is another piece of this story that rarely makes headlines.

Heat.

Steel, chemicals, and cement require extreme and continuous heat. Much of it still comes from fossil fuels.

Advanced nuclear reactors can deliver temperatures high enough to power these industrial processes without carbon emissions.

Picture steel forged with nuclear heat.

Picture cement cured without imported gas.

Factories could decarbonize while maintaining competitiveness.

That is why the European Union’s Net-Zero Industry Act now lists Small Modular Reactors as strategic technologies. The European SMR Alliance has laid out plans for pilot deployments before the decade ends.

Energy policy has moved beyond climate targets. It now determines whether Europe manufactures or imports.

The Political Climate Has Shifted

Public opinion is evolving.

After years of skepticism shaped by past nuclear accidents, many Europeans are reassessing trade-offs. Energy price spikes and supply insecurity reframed the debate.

The question people are asking today is pragmatic. Can Europe afford to exclude a stable source of power?

Even the European Commission has embraced the shift.

In her 2025 State of the Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized that clean homegrown energy, including nuclear, would be central to stabilizing prices and securing autonomy.

The message was unmistakable. Energy security is national security. National security requires reliable power.

The Inevitable Pivot

Europe’s nuclear U-turn did not come from nostalgia. It came from necessity.

Russian pipelines exposed the fragility of outsourced energy. Chinese dominance in clean-tech supply chains revealed another vulnerability. Industrial shutdowns showed how quickly prosperity can falter.

Leaders across Europe now speak with greater clarity.

Diversity creates resilience. Resilience strengthens sovereignty. Sovereignty depends on the power that you control.

Nuclear, once politically radioactive, is now being recast as a stabilizing backbone in a diversified energy system.

Renewables will continue to grow. Nuclear is stepping in to anchor them.

What Happens Next

When policy reverses this decisively, capital follows.

The European Commission’s Nuclear Illustrative Program estimates that roughly €241 billion will be required by 2050 for reactor upgrades and new builds.

Engineering firms. Reactor manufacturers. Fuel suppliers. Grid infrastructure providers. Advanced SMR developers.

An ecosystem is forming. Ecosystems attract investment.

Beyond the capital flows lies something deeper. Europe is redefining autonomy.

For decades, prosperity felt permanent.

Now leaders understand it must be defended not only with diplomacy and defense budgets but with electrons.

When the furnaces at Slovalco went cold, Europe learned a lesson written in fire and silence.

Energy cannot be outsourced indefinitely. Factories do not run on ideology. Sovereignty requires control over the basics.

The continent’s nuclear renaissance reflects a refusal to remain vulnerable.

The lights are coming back on.

This time, Europe intends to hold the switch.

Stay Sharp,

Gideon Ashwood