Denmark imports but does not produce nuclear energy, which is in accordance with a 1985 law passed by the Danish parliament, prohibiting power production from nuclear energy. In 2014 and 2015, imported nuclear power accounted for 3-4% of electricity consumption in Denmark. Beginning in the 1950s, the Danish government funded efforts to research and establish nuclear power plants in Denmark through the Danish Atomic Energy Commission and the Risø National Laboratory. Anti-nuclear sentiment within Denmark increased in the early 1970s following the Three Mile Island accident and the construction of the controversial Barsebäck Nuclear Power Plant. Protests made by the Organisationen til Oplysning om Atomkraft (English: Organisation for Nuclear Information; OOA) and dissent among the majority of voters led the Danish government to halt the rollout of a nuclear power program in 1976, and eventually prohibit the generation of nuclear power in 1985. In reaction to climate change, the 21st century has seen renewed interest in Denmark in nuclear energy production as an alternative to the use of fossil fuels. In August 2023, a Gallup poll showed that 55% of Denmark's population views nuclear power favourably, compared to 26% against.
History
Post-war research Denmark invested in nuclear research relatively late compared to other European nations due to American and British reluctance to allow Denmark's most prominent scientist, Niels Bohr, to divulge the knowledge he gained during the Manhattan project. Bohr was acutely aware of this fact, and as the rest of the scientific establishment followed his lead at the time, very little progress was made until the early 1950s. Following the 1953 Atoms for Peace speech, these tight restrictions were relaxed. After a 1955 American sponsored campaign from the US Information Service called "Atomet i Hverdagen" (English: The Atom in Everyday Life), the majority of Danes anticipated that nuclear energy would be "more of a boon than a curse to mankind". In December 1955, the Danish Atomic Energy Commission (Danish: Atomenergikommissionen, AEK) was established. The Commission consisted of 24 members, with Bohr as its chairman, and had oversight over the development and promotion of nuclear energy in Denmark. The AEK established a nuclear research site in Risø which was officially inaugurated on 6 June 1958.
Risø National Laboratory
In its first three decades, the Risø National Laboratory's activities were centred around research on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Between 1957 and 1960, three research nuclear reactors opened at Risø, which had been imported from or based on designs from the United States and United Kingdom: DR-1, DR-2 and DR-3 (DR: Danish Reactor, Dansk Reaktor). These reactors were not designed to produce power, but to be used for the training of power plant technicians and for producing radioisotopes for scientific and medical use. The institute also attempted to develop its own reactor design to be the model for Danish power reactors—an organic liquid cooled, heavy water moderated design called the Deuterium Organic Reactor (DOR). However, the institute failed to convince Danish power utilities to support it and their plans were never realised. Later attempts to partner with Sweden's AB Atomenergi to develop a heavy water reactor also failed due to a lack of collaboration and economic viability. Following increasing anti-nuclear sentiment within Denmark in the early 1970s, the Danish government halted the rollout of a nuclear power program in 1976, until a clear plan for the disposal of nuclear waste could be formalised. As a result the laboratory at Risø found itself at a standstill, especially after the prohibition of nuclear energy in 1985, and began shifting its focus towards research into other energy sources. By the turn of the 21st century, Risø was particularly noted for its research related to wind energy, solid-oxide fuel cells, and climate change. Beginning in 2003, the three nuclear research reactors at the former Risø National Laboratory were decommissioned along with the adjacent hot cell facility, fuel fabrication plant, and nuclear waste management plant. As of 2024, the decommissioning process of DR-3, the hot cells, and the nuclear waste management plant is still ongoing. The decommissioning of DR-1 (completed 2006), DR-2 (completed 2008), and fuel fabrication plant (completed 2023) has been completed. The laboratory employed about 700 staff in 2005, at which point it was a research institute under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. In 2007, the laboratory was merged into the Technical University of Denmark and was renamed into the Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy in 2007. In 2012, it was transformed into DTU Risø Campus, an additional campus of the Technical University of Denmark.
Anti-nuclear sentiment and nuclear ban
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