Nuclear power in Switzerland

Nuclear power in Switzerland is generated by three nuclear power plants, with a total of four operational reactors (see list below). Nuclear power has contributed a steady fraction of around forty percent to the Swiss electricity production since 1985. In 2022, it produced 23 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, and accounted for 37% of the nation's gross electricity generation of 62 TWh, while 55% was produced by hydroelectric plants and 8% came from conventional thermal power stations and non-hydro renewable energy sources.

In addition, there were a number of research reactors in Switzerland, such as the CROCUS reactor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne which is currently the last one left since 2013. Switzerland uses nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes. Any project for the adoption of nuclear weapons was definitively dropped in 1988.

Nuclear waste from power plants was processed mostly overseas until 2016. Storage is done on surface sites as plans are underway to move nuclear waste underground.

In 2011, the federal authorities decided to gradually phase out nuclear power in Switzerland as a consequence of the Fukushima accident in Japan. In late 2013 the operator BKW decided to cease all electrical generation in 2019 in the Mühleberg plant, which had a similar design to Fukushima.

As of 8 December 2014, the National Council has voted to limit the operational life-time of the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant to 60 years, forcing its two reactors to be decommissioned by 2029 and 2031, respectively. A popular initiative calling for nuclear power phase-out by 2029 was rejected by voters in 2016; however, on 1 January 2018 an amendment (article 12a) to the Swiss Nuclear Energy Act (Kernenergiegesetz) came into effect, prohibiting the issuing of new general licences for nuclear power plants.