Jonathan Ford, Columnist

Abandoning Nuclear Power Would Be Europe’s Biggest Climate Mistake

Zero-carbon nuclear power plants still provide almost one-quarter of the continent’s electricity. Nothing else will fill that gap reliably or quickly.

Nuclear power station in Tihange, Belgium. Atomic energy supplies almost half the country’s electricity.

Photographer: Thierry Monasse/Bloomberg
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Until 2011, Paul Bossens was an entrepreneur quietly running a small IT business in Leuven, not far from the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Aside from an interest in the environment — he’s an enthusiast for electric cars who delights in his shiny gull-wing Tesla Model X — Bossens, 68, wouldn’t have called himself politically committed. “I was never really one to be an activist or a protester,” he says. “I was too busy running my firm.”