Greece Establishes Committee to Study Inclusion of Nuclear Energy in Long-Term Energy Planning

On September 9, 2026, the Greek government published a decision in the Official Gazette establishing a government committee to study the possibility of including nuclear energy in the country's long-term energy planning.

According to the document, the committee will work in accordance with relevant guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Greece's Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organisation (NEPIO), responsible for organizing and managing the first phase of the IAEA "Milestones Approach." This phase is the exploratory stage set by the IAEA for countries considering the development of nuclear power.

The IAEA "Milestones Approach" is a framework guideline for countries interested in developing nuclear power, divided into three phases and covering 19 infrastructure issues, with the related work to be completed before the commissioning of the first nuclear power plant.

According to the Greek government's decision, the committee must submit a final report to the Council of Ministers within 24 months to provide a basis for the government to determine whether to launch a national nuclear energy programme. The committee will also conduct or coordinate preliminary feasibility studies, including assessing the cost-effectiveness of a potential national nuclear energy programme.

Greek Deputy Minister of Energy Nikos Tsafos stated on social media that one of the committee's goals is to improve the quality of public discussion, enhance understanding of nuclear energy among all parties, enable society to form a common understanding of the basic parameters of nuclear energy, and conduct discussions based on real data from the experience of other countries rather than relying on prejudice and one-sided information.

The government decision also proposes that the committee may study different technology pathways such as conventional reactors and small modular reactors in terms of cost, safety, technological maturity, and compatibility with Greece's energy mix. The committee may also study potential applications of nuclear energy in the shipping sector.

The committee is expected to meet every two months and may hold ad hoc meetings as needed.

Currently, Greece has no commercial nuclear power plants. The country's only research reactor is the 5 MW Greek Research Reactor-1 (GRR-1) located at the National Centre for Scientific Research "Demokritos," which has been in a state of long-term shutdown and refurbishment since 2004.

Greece's push toward nuclear energy still faces political sensitivity. The country currently lacks nuclear energy legislation, experience in reactor licensing review, and a systematically trained nuclear energy workforce.

A 2025 survey showed that the proportion of Greeks traditionally opposed to nuclear energy has dropped from 75% in 2018 to 42.8% in 2025; the proportion of respondents supporting the use of nuclear energy in Greece is 30%, compared with only 18% in 2018.