Greece is now officially considering nuclear power, and the numbers behind that decision are striking. Prime Minister Ky...

Greece is now officially considering nuclear power, and the numbers behind that decision are striking. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced at an international nuclear summit in Paris, attended by around 40 heads of state, that Greece will examine whether small modular reactors could enter its energy mix. He has already set up an interministerial committee to produce concrete recommendations. The pressure on the Greek grid is the reason this is happening now. By May 2026, data center connection requests to grid operator ADMIE had reached roughly 2.5 GW in total requested capacity, up from 315 MW with confirmed offers just months earlier. PPC is already planning a 300 MW mega data center in Kozani, and a PwC study puts total potential data center investment in Greece at up to 10 billion euros. Electric vehicles are adding to the strain. Greece hit a record 8,754 fully electric vehicle sales in 2025, a 6.2% share of new registrations, and registrations in April 2026 alone were up 31% compared to the previous year. Renewables cannot reliably meet the round-the-clock baseload demand that data centers and EV charging require. The technology Greece is looking at is already moving in Europe. The European Commission presented a strategy in March to fast-track small modular reactors, with the first European units targeted for the early 2030s. France's Calogena secured 96 million dollars in new funding for its Cal-30 microreactor design in the same month, and Finland is already replacing gas-powered heating with these compact units. Greek physicist and energy advisor Zisis Ioannidis says Greece's seismic activity does not rule out nuclear, pointing to Japan as proof, but warns that the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates 10 to 15 years from a political decision to a functioning first plant. That puts a realistic Greek timeline at the late 2030s at the earliest. #Greece #NuclearEnergy #EnergyPolicy