The European Commission’s June 2024 “Nuclear Energy Roadmap” – a GIS‑based catalogue of roughly 900 prospective nuclear‑plant sites – has turned the continent’s climate‑neutrality ambitions into a literal map of possibilities. In a single stroke the EU has tried to steer cross‑border investment, grid planning and public debate onto a common grid, yet the very tool meant to bring clarity is shrouded in opacity.
The roadmap is built on six non‑negotiable criteria: grid‑connection feasibility, geological and seismic stability, reliable water sources for cooling, a safety buffer from densely populated areas, provisions for waste‑management and de‑commissioning, and full compliance with EU safety and environmental directives. By embedding these safeguards at the screening stage, the Commission signals that any future reactor must meet a baseline of technical soundness and environmental responsibility before private capital ever enters the picture.
What the roadmap does not disclose, however, is how those 900 sites are distributed among the 27 Member States. Both the press release and the accompanying legal dossier omit any country‑level tally, leaving policymakers, investors and civil‑society groups in the dark about which nations will face the greatest siting pressure. Critics have seized on this silence, arguing that a lack of granular data undermines democratic legitimacy and hampers informed public debate, while proponents contend that a unified, albeit undisclosed, inventory is essential to attract the €241 billion investment the EU estimates will be needed to meet its 2030 and 2050 climate targets.
On the ground, the reaction is equally muted. In Normandy – home to the long‑running Flamanville‑3 and the planned Penly‑2 reactors – no municipal council, mayor or local NGO has issued a public statement on the EU‑wide map. The Polish Baltic voivodeship of Pomerania, where the nation’s first nuclear plant is moving through permitting, offers the only concrete voice: Governor Beata Rutkiewicz confirmed on 28 April 2025 that the region is issuing a permit for preparatory work, while acknowledging an environmental‑law complaint as “a natural process” that must be respected. South Bohemia, West Finland and the German‑Dutch border region likewise remain silent in the official record, highlighting a broader gap in community‑level engagement.
Energy analysts warn that the roadmap’s cross‑border implications are profound. By flagging sites that can be linked to the high‑voltage transmission network, the map effectively pre‑selects corridors for power flows that will criss‑cross national borders, reshaping trade balances and grid stability across the Union. Experts stress that without transparent, country‑by‑country data, investors cannot accurately assess risk, and national governments cannot plan complementary renewable or storage projects to dovetail with potential nuclear capacity.
Environmental stakes are baked into the six criteria – water‑source availability, distance from population centres, and strict adherence to EU safety and environmental directives – but the absence of publicly released GIS layers means that local ecosystems, river basins and biodiversity hotspots cannot be examined on a site‑by‑site basis. NGOs argue that this prevents rigorous scrutiny of the trade‑offs between decarbonisation and habitat disruption, especially in regions already stressed by climate change.
For the roadmap to fulfil its promise, the Commission must publish the detailed GIS dataset, disaggregate site counts by Member State, and launch a systematic outreach programme that brings municipalities, farmer groups and environmental NGOs into the conversation. Only with such transparency can Europe secure a social licence for new nuclear capacity, align divergent national nuclear strategies, and ensure that the continent’s energy future truly serves both climate imperatives and the communities that will live alongside the reactors.
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