Opmeer, a small rural municipality in the West Friesland region, is captivated by a small nuclear power plant that is yet to be built, a so-called Small Modular Reactor (SMR), which you can assemble like a kind of ‘Lego package’.
Carel Anink, councilor for Door Samenwerking Vooruit, has been trying to get nuclear energy on the climate agenda since 2019. An ambitious plan that he does not immediately get to grips with. As an energy expert for the local party, he regularly participates in consultations on the Regional Energy Transition (RES). The region must indicate how it wants to generate energy in order to become climate neutral by 2040, among other things.
‘Wind turbines and solar meadows alone are not enough’
An impossible task, Anink emphasizes, when he looks at the current plans. “It only talks about wind turbines and solar meadows,” he says. To be climate neutral by 2040, he has calculated, 340 wind turbines and 3,000 hectares of solar meadows are needed.
And that doesn’t make much difference, adds VVD member Co Schipper. “We are not going to make it with just sun and wind, that is now clear. Then you have to think of something else and nuclear energy is a good alternative for that. We understand that there are many residents who are afraid of that, but we We are convinced that it is very safe, so as far as I am concerned it can be placed in Opmeer.”
Anink: “If there is one development that is happening quickly that we do not want, it is climate change. We must put a stop to it by using all the resources available to do so as quickly as possible.”
Rate change
For years, nuclear energy was the elephant in the room, but thanks to the motion by DSV, the VVD, Gemeentebelangen Opmeer and Local Party Opmeer, the construction of a small nuclear power plant for West Friesland is now back on the agenda.
A majority in Opmeer seems enthusiastic. Now that the wind has changed in The Hague and the new cabinet welcomes nuclear energy, a change of course is possible after all, according to the municipality.. Options are also being explored in the neighboring municipality of Den Helder and have already been implemented a possible location in view near Kooypunt/Kooyhaven. “As far as I’m concerned, two will be built in the Kop van Noord-Holland, so that there is sufficient power above the North Sea Canal,” says Schipper.
But that does not mean that a small nuclear power plant will actually come to the region. Opmeer is in an exploratory phase, in discussions with the other six municipalities in West Friesland. “The municipalities agree that nuclear energy is a possibility, but only in 10 to 15 years,” explains councilor Herman ter Veen. However, Opmeer wants to accelerate and will ask the municipal council for permission to take steps in January 2025. “We want to investigate the possibilities for an SMR.”