Positions & Debate
KernD contributes to the energy policy dialogue with scientific expertise, clear positions, and a culture of fact-based debate.
Our Positions
Well-founded perspectives on the key issues shaping nuclear technology.
Nuclear technology is technology for the industry of the future
The importance of nuclear technology extends far beyond energy generation.
Since the early days of nuclear research in the first half of the 20th century, it has evolved into a cross-cutting technology that provides essential building blocks for a wide range of applications. Alongside low-carbon energy generation, it supplies medical isotopes, enables precise material analysis, provides industrial process heat, and supports hydrogen production. Nuclear research also advances new standards in radiation protection and safety engineering. At the same time, next-generation reactor technologies are being developed, while the foundations for future fusion energy are being established.
Nuclear expertise remains essential - even after the nuclear phase-out
Ending nuclear power generation does not eliminate the need for nuclear expertise. Decommissioning, waste management, radiation protection, medical applications, research, and international safety standards will remain long-term responsibilities.
Germany continues to possess extensive expertise in decommissioning, waste management, and the safe handling of radioactive materials – capabilities that are also highly valued internationally.
At the same time, nuclear technology is strategically important for the future of Germany as an industrial and innovation hub. Radioactive isotopes enable diagnostics, cancer therapy, non-destructive material testing, tracer applications, and space missions. Germany should not give up its ability to help shape these technologies, especially as both demand and expertise remain strong.
Europe’s nuclear industry needs German expertise
Many European countries are expanding their nuclear capacities or evaluating new technologies, while the EU is developing industrial frameworks for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).
Germany holds significant expertise within the supplier industry serving European and global nuclear markets. These industrial and research capabilities are an important contribution to Europe’s technological landscape. Preserving and expanding this expertise – and actively participating in the growth of Europe’s nuclear sector – is therefore essential.
Nuclear technology is a strategic resource
Maintaining nuclear expertise in Germany is an active contribution to strengthening technological sovereignty and, with it, Europe’s ability to act independently.
Germany must invest strategically in the further development of nuclear technology in order to remain technologically, industrially, and regulatorily prepared for global developments in this field. Only countries with the necessary expertise can participate in future technologies such as fusion and SMRs and help shape international standards.
Nuclear technology is technology for the industry of the future because it connects energy, research, medicine, safety, materials science, and industrial value creation.
Preserving Germany as a High-Tech Industrial Hub
Germany is one of Europe’s leading industrial and technology locations.
With the commissioning of the Munich-Garching research reactor in 1957, Germany began building a highly capable nuclear value chain. To this day, it combines cutting-edge research, specialized technologies, and extensive expertise in the safety, operation, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities, alongside medical isotope applications, material testing, and semiconductor manufacturing.
Before phasing out commercial nuclear power generation, Germany was the European Union’s second-largest producer of nuclear electricity after France.
KernD is the voice of the nuclear value chain.
KernD represents the interests of the nuclear value chain and its contribution to Germany as a high-tech industrial location. As the leading industry association, KernD advocates for the sector, represents its interests toward policymakers and the public, and promotes a strategic political framework for future nuclear technologies.
Preserving Germany’s high-tech capabilities is a societal responsibility.
This includes reliable political frameworks, continued investment in research and education, open public dialogue, and industrial investment in expertise and supply chains.
The key decisions must be made now.
The German government aims to make Germany a leading innovation hub for nuclear fusion and has declared its ambition to realize a fusion power plant in Germany.
Before fusion energy becomes commercially available, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could play an important role in Europe’s future energy and industrial architecture.
To strengthen Germany as a technology location, the federal government should support two development pathways: fusion and SMRs. Both depend on a shared nuclear competence base – ranging from skilled professionals, research, and regulation to safety expertise, supply chains, high-tech materials, superconducting magnets, plasma physics, and large-scale engineering.
Only by preserving and expanding these capabilities can Germany secure access to future nuclear technologies. If advanced reactors and fusion are to be assessed, regulated, and deployed in the future, the necessary foundations in research, regulation, supply chains, workforce development, and safety expertise must be established today.
Technological Openness Instead of Ideology
Recognizing the complexity of the debate.
KernD is committed to fact-based discourse, transparent communication of scientific findings, and constructive dialogue about the opportunities and risks of nuclear technology.
Critical perspectives are an essential part of this discussion. They reflect a responsible approach to a technology that requires high standards in safety, regulation, and public trust.
In Germany, however, debates about nuclear technology are often shaped by political preconceptions and oversimplified narratives. Complex issues are frequently reduced to simplified arguments, causing opportunities, risks, and necessary trade-offs to disappear from view. This makes constructive discussion more difficult, especially on issues such as security of supply, waste management, radiation protection, advanced reactor technologies, and the long-term preservation of nuclear expertise.
KernD therefore advocates for a pragmatic, technology-open debate on nuclear technology.
As Germany’s leading association for the nuclear value chain, KernD sees it as its responsibility to make expert knowledge accessible, provide context for differing perspectives, and enable a fact-based discussion.
Why technological openness matters
Terms such as SMRs, advanced reactors, fusion, waste management, or radiation protection are technically complex. Without clear explanation, misunderstandings and polarization quickly arise.
KernD explains technical issues in an accessible way, provides context for scientific findings, and gives experts a platform to contribute to the public debate.
Technological openness does not mean unconditional support for every technology.
It means evaluating technologies carefully before decisions are made, comparing them with alternatives in their specific application context, and transparently assessing opportunities, risks, costs, safety requirements, and societal impacts.
This applies equally to new and established technologies.
It applies both before adopting a technology and before rejecting it outright. In many cases, opportunities and risks only become clear through detailed examination of technical, regulatory, and industrial realities.
KernD therefore stands for a debate that openly addresses risks, evaluates opportunities objectively, and enables decisions based on robust facts.
Sovereignty & Security of Supply
Security of supply is about more than generating sufficient amounts of electricity.
What matters is ensuring that electricity is available whenever needed, remains affordable, and can be delivered in a stable and reliable way. As industry, mobility, heating systems, and digital infrastructure become increasingly electrified, demand for dependable electricity continues to rise.
At the same time, European countries are increasingly confronted with the need to make their energy systems and strategic supply chains more resilient in an increasingly globalized and geopolitically tense environment.
For many EU member states, nuclear energy is therefore a central pillar of sovereign energy supply. It provides electricity independent of weather conditions or time of day and contributes to a robust and diversified energy system.
Europe is investing in nuclear energy - in line with a global trend.
While Germany has ended nuclear power generation, nuclear energy remains an important part of Europe’s electricity mix.
In 2024, twelve EU member states generated a combined 649,524 GWh of electricity from nuclear power, accounting for 23.3 percent of total electricity generation within the European Union. Compared to 2023, nuclear generation in the EU increased by 4.8 percent.
This development highlights a key reality: security of supply requires a robust, diversified, and technology-open energy system.
Energy sovereignty does not mean complete self-sufficiency. It means reducing dependencies, evaluating technologies competently, helping shape standards, and ensuring reliable supply even under stress conditions.
Globally, nuclear energy also remains part of the industrial and energy strategy of many countries. Numerous reactors are currently under construction, with many more planned. Industrialized and emerging economies alike are evaluating or deploying nuclear power to provide reliable low-carbon electricity for growing industrial and infrastructure needs.
What role should Germany play?
Germany should not merely observe these developments. It should contribute its industrial, scientific, and regulatory expertise to Europe’s evolving energy landscape.
Nuclear energy remains an important low-carbon energy source in Europe and continues to be part of Europe’s security-of-supply architecture. For Germany, the issue is therefore not only about individual power plants, but about maintaining the capability to act in the nuclear field.
KernD advocates preserving and advancing nuclear expertise as a strategic resource for energy sovereignty, industrial competitiveness, and European participation.
By the 2030s, SMRs, advanced reactor concepts, and, in the longer term, fusion may open up entirely new possibilities. Any country that wants to make sovereign decisions about these technologies must invest today in skilled professionals, regulation, research, supply chains, and safety expertise.
Medicine - Nuclear Technology Saves Lives
How nuclear technologies enable modern medicine.
Nuclear technology and medicine are far more closely connected than many people realize.
While public debate often focuses on energy policy, nuclear technology has an often invisible yet life-saving impact in healthcare: from highly precise diagnostics to targeted treatment of serious diseases.
Invisible tools in diagnostics
One of the most important fields is nuclear medicine. Radioactive isotopes make it possible to visualize metabolic processes inside the body that would otherwise remain hidden.
Technologies such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and scintigraphy allow diseases to be detected at an early stage – often long before structural tissue changes become visible. These procedures are now indispensable, particularly in cancer diagnostics. They help physicians precisely locate tumors, assess disease progression, and tailor treatments to individual patients.
Precision radiation in cancer therapy.
Nuclear technology is used not only for diagnosis, but also for treatment.
In radiation therapy, high-energy radiation is precisely targeted to destroy tumor cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. Increasingly important are modern radionuclide therapies, in which radioactive substances are introduced directly into the body. These substances selectively accumulate in tumor cells and attack them from within – a promising approach particularly for certain cancers and personalized treatment strategies.
Medical isotopes - the foundation of modern care.
Many nuclear medicine applications rely on medical isotopes produced in research reactors or particle accelerators.
Because many of these isotopes have very short half-lives, production, transportation, and application must be precisely coordinated. A reliable nuclear infrastructure is therefore essential for the treatment of millions of patients worldwide.
Safety and hygiene in everyday healthcare.
Nuclear technology also plays a critical role beyond diagnostics and therapy.
Radiation sterilization allows medical products such as syringes, implants, surgical instruments, and dressings to be sterilized safely and effectively. These technologies make an essential contribution to hygiene, infection prevention, and patient safety – often unnoticed, yet indispensable in modern healthcare.
Research opens new perspectives
The medical use of nuclear technologies continues to evolve rapidly.
Advances in research and technology are enabling increasingly precise diagnostics, more targeted therapies, and new approaches to personalized medicine. At the same time, securing isotope supply remains a major challenge, making international cooperation, research capacity, and stable technological infrastructure all the more important.
Why modern medicine would be unimaginable without nuclear technology.
One thing is clear: modern medicine would be inconceivable in many areas without nuclear technologies.
They enable early diagnosis, effective therapies, and higher survival rates for millions of people. Nuclear technology is therefore far more than an energy issue – it is an indispensable part of modern healthcare.
Isotopes for Nuclear Medicine and Industry
Medical and industrial importance of isotopes
Nuclear technology supports highly specialized supply chains and provides irreplaceable components for science, industry, and medicine.
Thanks to their unique physical properties, isotopes are now used across a wide range of applications. They are essential for medical imaging and cancer treatment, while in industry they are used, for example, in non-destructive material testing.
A resilient supply of stable and radioactive isotopes is essential for modern nuclear medicine, scientific research, and industrial applications.
Isotopes are not mass-produced commodities. Their production, quality assurance, and logistics require specialized facilities, skilled professionals, regulatory expertise, and international supply chains.
Maintaining nuclear expertise in Germany is therefore a prerequisite for sovereign access to these highly specialized products. The supply chains for isotopes are critical to strategic sovereignty in medicine and research.
Europe must ensure that resilient isotope supply chains, domestic production and processing capacities, and regulatory expertise are preserved. Maintaining existing nuclear expertise in the field of isotopes in Germany is therefore indispensable.
More information on isotopes can be found in the Infocenter.
Themen & Debatten
Aktuelle Diskussionen zu den Kernthemen der deutschen Kerntechnik
The Search for a Final Repository
The Search for a Final Repository
The final disposal of high-level radioactive waste is a state responsibility in Germany. It includes the site selection process, geological exploration, construction, and the long-term operation of a repository for high-level radioactive waste. The legal basis for this process is Germany’s Site Selection Act, which establishes an open-ended, science-based, and transparent procedure.
With the creation of the Nuclear Waste Management Fund (KENFO), the financial resources required for interim storage and final disposal have been secured for the long term. Operators of German nuclear power plants have contributed around €24 billion to this state-managed fund.
The Debate
The search for a final repository has accompanied the use of nuclear technology for decades and is one of Germany’s most demanding long-term infrastructure and safety challenges. It involves highly specialized geological, technical, scientific, and regulatory questions and requires sustained professional expertise over generations. The debate must therefore reflect the high level of complexity and technical depth involved.
International examples demonstrate that the safe geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste is technically feasible. Projects such as the Onkalo repository in Finland, Sweden’s site decision for a deep geological repository, and the advanced planning process in Switzerland are regarded internationally as important reference points for safety requirements, site selection procedures, regulatory frameworks, and public participation.
In the field of final disposal, the roles of government and industry are clearly separated. While industry bears the financial costs and contributes technical expertise from plant operation, decommissioning, waste management, and radiation protection, the state is responsible for the search, licensing, and operation of suitable disposal facilities.
Our Position
Final disposal must be secured as a long-term state responsibility through stable institutional structures, adequate resources, and continuity of expertise. Repository site selection is not only a technical and geological challenge, it is also a governance challenge that places high demands on transparency, traceability, and public trust.
What matters most is a science-based process built on clear criteria and transparent decisions. The public must be able to understand why certain areas are excluded, why others continue to be investigated, and which safety standards are applied throughout the process.
Long-term scientific, technical, and regulatory expertise remains indispensable for the safe implementation of final disposal.
Further data, facts, and expert analysis on repository site selection can be found in the Infocenter.
Nuclear Fuels and Uranium Enrichment
Background
Nuclear fuels are used in nuclear reactors to generate energy through nuclear fission. In most commercial nuclear power plants, the fissile isotope Uranium-235 is used as fuel. It is the only naturally occurring nuclide capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction. Before it can be used in conventional light water reactors, the proportion of Uranium-235 in the fuel must typically be increased to around 3 to 5 percent. This industrial process is known as uranium enrichment and represents a key step in the nuclear fuel cycle. Uranium ore is first processed into yellowcake, then converted into uranium hexafluoride, and subsequently enriched in specialized facilities using the gas centrifuge process.
The Debate
Uranium enrichment is a highly specialized technology and a central component of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is part of the strategic nuclear value chain, linking raw material supply, fuel manufacturing, reactor operation, safeguards, non-proliferation, and waste management. International supply chains play a particularly important role in this context.
The supply of natural uranium is based on global commodity markets, with major uranium reserves located in countries such as Australia, Kazakhstan, and Canada. While Europe depends on international supply chains for uranium mining, the European Union has strong capabilities in key technological stages of the fuel cycle. Europe hosts important facilities for enrichment, conversion, and fuel fabrication.
Against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions, supply chain risks, and growing global demand for nuclear energy, the issue of strategic security of supply is becoming increasingly important. Maintaining and expanding European fuel cycle capacities is therefore not only an industrial issue, but also a matter of energy security and strategic policy. This also applies to new reactor technologies and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), whose long-term fuel supply requirements must already be considered today.
In Germany, public debate often narrows the issue to the country’s phase-out of commercial nuclear power generation. In reality, however, Germany remains part of European and international nuclear value chains and safety structures. Uranium enrichment, fuel assembly manufacturing, and the safe transport of nuclear materials remain key strategic capabilities for Europe’s nuclear industry. This also includes the responsibility to help shape safeguards and regulatory oversight. To fulfill this role credibly, Germany requires both scientific and industrial expertise at home.
Our Position
Enrichment capacities cannot be replaced at short notice. Due to high capital requirements, sensitive technologies, and long investment cycles, uranium enrichment infrastructure represents a strategic capability that cannot simply be rebuilt when needed. In a geopolitical environment that continues to challenge global energy markets, Germany must preserve its expertise in uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication in order to reduce strategic risks for Europe and limit dependencies on critical third countries. Uranium enrichment should therefore be understood as a civilian, strictly regulated key technology within the European nuclear fuel cycle. As such, it should be safeguarded and further developed as part of Europe’s long-term technological and energy sovereignty.
Small Modular Reactors (SMR)
Background
Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs, are smaller nuclear reactors whose key components can be manufactured industrially and installed on site in modular form. These reactors typically have an electrical output of up to 300 megawatts electric (MWe).
Internationally, SMRs are seen as a potential complement to future energy and industrial infrastructure. First commercial applications are expected from the 2030s onward.
The Debate
Many industrialized countries face the same challenge: they need a secure, low-carbon, and competitive energy supply for an increasingly electrified economy. Digitalization, artificial intelligence, electric mobility, the decarbonization of heating and industry, and the rapidly growing energy demand of large data centers are driving global demand for reliable electricity and heat supply.
As a result, SMRs are increasingly viewed not only as conventional power plants, but as flexible infrastructure technologies for industrial applications. In addition to electricity generation, they may provide process heat, hydrogen production, district heating, or energy supply for power-intensive industrial and technology sites.
A growing number of countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Poland, are investing in new reactor concepts and industrial supply chains for SMRs. At the European level, SMRs are already being recognized as a strategically important field of technology. In 2024, the European Commission launched the European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors to support the development and deployment of SMRs in Europe. The EU’s stated objective is to make SMRs part of a climate-neutral and competitive European energy and industrial architecture.
For Germany, the question is becoming increasingly urgent: whether it will preserve and further develop its nuclear expertise and actively contribute it to European technology and industrial policy. Against this backdrop, and in light of the significant technological progress made in modern reactor concepts, simply repeating old energy policy conflicts falls short of what the SMR debate requires. What is needed instead is a strategic decision about which path Germany wants to pursue within the European context.
Our Position
Germany now needs a realistic, step-by-step, and technology-open approach to new reactor technologies. This does not require the federal government to commit prematurely to specific projects. What matters is preserving and strengthening Germany’s strategic capability to assess international technological developments, accompany them from a regulatory perspective, and identify industrial opportunities at an early stage.
This requires a long-term nuclear technology strategy that brings together research, industry, regulation, and education. Germany should actively contribute its existing expertise in safety research, plant engineering, materials science, regulation, and industrial infrastructure to European developments in order to remain technologically and industrially connected.
SMRs, advanced reactor concepts, and nuclear fusion follow different technological approaches and timelines. Taken together, however, they demonstrate that nuclear technologies continue to be viewed internationally as strategic technologies for the future.
Learn more here about KernD’s proposal for a national nuclear strategy.
Fusion
Fusion
The European Commission describes fusion as a potentially disruptive technology that could fundamentally reshape the global energy landscape in the second half of the century. Governments, research institutions, and private companies around the world are investing in fusion programs, demonstration facilities, and industrial applications.
Both in Europe and in Germany, momentum for fusion is growing significantly. With its 2025 action plan “Germany on the Path to a Fusion Power Plant”, the German government set out the ambition to build the world’s first fusion power plant in Germany. The vision is for Germany not only to become an energy producer in this field, but also an export nation in the global fusion sector.
Fusion is not a short-term solution to today’s energy supply challenges. Industrial deployment is expected in the period after 2040 to 2050. This makes it all the more important to create the technological, scientific, and industrial foundations today.
Building a competitive fusion ecosystem requires long-term research, international cooperation, and close collaboration between science, industry, and regulators. Germany already possesses significant expertise in key areas such as materials science, high-performance engineering, plasma physics, safety research, and complex industrial infrastructure.
The Debate
Die Europäische Kommission beschreibt Fusion als potenziell disruptive Technologie, die die globale Energielandschaft in der zweiten Hälfte des Jahrhunderts grundlegend verändern kann. Weltweit investieren Staaten, Forschungseinrichtungen und private Unternehmen in Fusionsprogramme, Demonstrationsanlagen und industrielle Anwendungen.
Sowohl in Europa als auch in Deutschland gibt es ein starkes Momentum für die Technologie. Mit dem Aktionsplan “Deutschland auf dem Weg zum Fusionskraftwerk” formulierte die Bundesregierung 2025 das Ziel, das erste Fusionskraftwerk der Welt in Deutschland zu errichten. Deutschland soll damit zum Energieproduzenten und einer Exportnation im Fusionssektor werden.
Fusion ist keine kurzfristige Lösung für aktuelle Herausforderungen der Energieversorgung. Die industrielle Nutzung wird in der Zeit nach 2040 bis 2050 erwartet. Umso wichtiger ist es, bereits heute die technologischen, wissenschaftlichen und industriellen Voraussetzungen dafür zu schaffen.
Der Aufbau eines leistungsfähigen Fusionsökosystems erfordert langfristige Forschung, internationale Kooperationen und eine enge Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wissenschaft, Industrie und Regulierung. Deutschland  verfügt hierfür bereits über bedeutende Kompetenzen, unter anderem in Materialforschung, Hochleistungstechnik, Plasmaphysik, Sicherheitsforschung und komplexer industrieller Infrastruktur.
Our Position
Fusion represents a long-term opportunity for Germany as a technology, research, and industrial hub. If political ambition is to become technological reality, Germany must preserve its shared nuclear competence base, strengthen collaboration between research and industry, establish fit-for-purpose regulatory pathways, and help shape international standards. This requires a national nuclear strategy that recognizes the value of existing nuclear expertise and creates credible pathways for future technologies.
Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion should therefore be considered together in German technology policy. Both have the potential to make an important contribution to a climate-neutral energy and industrial architecture, but on different timelines. SMRs are expected to see practical deployment from the 2030s onward, while nuclear fusion is unlikely to become industrially available before the period after 2040 to 2050.
Germany should pursue a two-track strategy for future nuclear technologies: actively supporting the development of fusion while at the same time scientifically and regulatorily engaging with international developments in the SMR sector. In parallel, nuclear research and education capacities at German universities and research institutions must be preserved and strengthened now in order to secure long-term expertise and train the next generation of specialists.
Do you have any questions about our positions?
Contact us for further information or a professional exchange.