Going Non-nuclear in the Nuclear Alliance

Danish nuclear policy is at a crossroads. Looking back, Denmark’s relationship to nuclear technology has been a difficult balancing act for successive governments, trying to soothe an anti-nuclear domestic sentiment on one side and the membership of a nuclear military alliance on the other. This history produced an enduring double approach to nuclear policy by Copenhagen throughout the cold war. Looking ahead, this history is of particular relevance as Denmark and Greenland are considering lifting their twenty-five-year ban on mining radioactive elements and allowing the production of Greenland’s uranium. With Greenland’s large reserves potentially catapulting this otherwise non-nuclear and non-mining kingdom into one of the world’s top suppliers of uranium, the policy debate has to include a look back at Denmark’s relationship to nuclear technology, for both peaceful and military purposes

Read the full article by Cindy Vestergaard here