China is ramping up its nuclear reactor exports, pushing the Hualong One design to Pakistan, Argentina, and now eyeing European markets. Meanwhile, the EU debates whether to label nuclear as green energy, and Italy remains paralyzed without a national nuclear strategy since the 1987 referendum.
The real issue is not just the hardware. China sells an entire ecosystem: components, fuel, maintenance, software updates. And data. Every connected reactor streams telemetry, operational parameters, sensitive information. Handing control of your national grid to a foreign supplier with an opaque governance model means surrendering a slice of sovereignty.
Our position
We, at Meteora Web, see digital dependencies every day. When a client picks Shopify over an open architecture, they know the monthly fee is just the start: data stays on someone else’s servers, customization is limited, vendor lock-in is real. With nuclear energy it’s the same, but on a massive scale. China has clear geopolitical interests: use technology as leverage. If Europe buys Chinese reactors, it gives Beijing direct influence over its energy stability. We’ve seen this play out in the digital sphere with American and Chinese big tech — plant the infrastructure, then extract value. This time it’s not ad data, it’s electricity. The stakes are higher.
Sponsored Protocol
The right path, in our view, is twofold: first, invest immediately in a European nuclear supply chain — France, Finland, Romania already have working technology. Second, demand that any new plant on EU soil meets transparency, audit, and cybersecurity standards that only an allied supplier can guarantee. Italy cannot afford to be the last to decide and the first to depend.
Sponsored Protocol
What to do? If you develop software for the energy sector, start asking your providers where data is hosted and who has access. If you run a small business, scrutinize the digital footprint of your tech partners. We’ve been doing this for years: choosing open source, hosting in Italy, signing contracts without extraterritoriality clauses. Digital sovereignty and energy sovereignty are two sides of the same coin. No country can afford to trade them for a lower upfront cost.
