Exerting Influence: World Nuclear Association in the Media 2024
The past year has been extraordinary for nuclear energy in the news. The world is realizing that there is a need for clean, reliable energy and that nuclear can provide an abundance of this.
This is evidenced by: announcements from technology giants Amazon, Google, Microsoft to purchase and develop nuclear energy through deals with small modular reactors (SMRs) vendors and operators of existing large reactors; fourteen of the world’s leading banks signed up to support the tripling of global nuclear capacity by 2050, in New York Climate Week; and how nuclear energy is viewed as an essential part of the future clean energy mix in the conversations at COP29 in Baku.
Throughout these moments, when nuclear energy has the global spotlight on it, the Association has provided consistent, well-researched input to the stories that mattered. The Association works hard on a daily basis to respond to enquiries, and our information services such as our reactor database and information library are vital sources for journalists and news researchers.
Some examples of impactful coverage this year are:
- Nuclear Power Was Once Shunned at Climate Talks. Now, it’s a Rising Star (15 November 2024) in The New York Times featured our Director General for the first quote when interviewed on the sidelines of COP29.
- Is nuclear energy the zero-carbon answer to powering AI? (3 October 2024) in the Financial Times (FT) referenced our World Nuclear Symposium.
- Both Financial Times (World's biggest banks pledge support for nuclear power) and S&P Global (Government, business leaders seek innovative finance structures to advance nuclear power) covered the story of 14 major banks pledging support of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050 at Climate Week NYC (23 September 2024).
- CGTN made a feature episode of World Nuclear Symposium for its programme, The Agenda (21 September 2024).
Attending a number of events throughout the year, our Director General Sama Bilbo y León was interviewed by mainstream media in various locations:
- On the sidelines of World Nuclear Fuel Cycle and World Nuclear Spotlight in Kazakhstan Sama was interviewed about the country’s referendum on nuclear energy (19 April 2024) on Kazakh TV channel Silk Way.
- Participating in World Energy Congress, Sama discussed the goal of tripling global nuclear capacity in an interview with CNBC, and about establishing Net Zero Nuclear to bring governments and industry together, with World Energy TV (23 April 2024).
- After engagements at CERA week, the Brussels nuclear summit and the G7 in Italy, Sama was interview by German Manager Magazine, preempting the partnerships of technology giants with nuclear (15 May 2024).
- During Singapore International Energy Week, Sama was interviewed about the growing clean energy investment for nuclear (21 October 2024) on Bloomberg, and why global nuclear capacity must triple to meet climate goals (22 October 2024) on CAN.
Other experts at the Association commented in the media. Ronan Tanguy, programme lead for safety and licensing commented on Next-generation nuclear developers battle with ‘regulatory marathons’ (25 April 2024) in the FT.
Henry Preston, external communication, provided comments on Italy’s nuclear revival (7 October 2024) in Global Data, on South Africa’s Koeberg lifetime operation extension (17 July, 2024) in Cape Times, and as a counter argument to Greenpeace (10 April 2024) in Energy Monitor.
There are many other examples where our data was utilized, such as in the BBC article Why Canada could become the next nuclear energy 'superpower' (14 November 2024) and The Economist used our data for its visual graphics in Big tech is bringing nuclear power back to life (9 October 2024).
In addition, our World Nuclear Performance Report 2024 was featured in a number of outlets:
- Report: Rising nuclear generation provides almost tenth of world's electricity in 2023 (20 August 2024) in Business Green.
- New report highlights increase in global nuclear performance (22 August 2024) in Nuclear Engineering International.
- Nuclear energy sector expanding to supply data centers, high-tech industries (10 September 2024) in Balkan Green Energy News.
- Nuclear power plant performance remained at a high level in 2023 (22 September 2024) in Czech outlet, OENERGEITCE.
- Continued Excellent Nuclear Power Plant Performance Bodes Well for Future Prospects (19 November 2024) in POWER magazine.
Thanks for working with us in 2024. Here’s to 2025 and continuing to provide clear, well-researched, evidence-based information to the global media, and advocating for nuclear energy on behalf of our members.