No other power-generating device raises as much concern as the nuclear reactor. Because of this, until recently the future of the entire energy sector has been determined by its past.

On the eve of the pandemic, the European energy sector found itself at a crossroads, somewhere between Great Britain, Germany and Poland. Five years ago, across the English Channel, the then Prime Minister David Cameron announced an ambitious program to build 12 new nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 16 GW. While developing renewable energy resources, they would allow the United Kingdom to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector to almost zero. Soon after, Cameron came up with the idea of a referendum on leaving the EU – and Brexit reset all long-term British plans. However, the British are already producing electricity in a very sustainable way. Almost 38% comes from renewable sources, about 20% from nuclear power plants, while the remainder is provided by gas-powered plants, the only ones that emit CO2.

Meanwhile in Germany, the aversion towards nuclear energy has been growing for years. Finally, following the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, chancellor Angela Merkel announced that all nuclear power plants would be shut down by 2022. For the first few years, the great Energiewende (energy transformation) plan seemed to be going well. Thanks to subsidies and increased electricity prices for individual customers, the intensive development of wind farms and solar power plants continued. However, no technological solution has been found to overcome the main weakness of renewable energy sources: plants running on renewable sources work on average for