24. June 2026
Nuclear power has moved further up both the European and Danish energy agenda. In the government platform "Det politiske grundlag for firkløverregeringen" (The Political Foundation for the Four-Leaf-Clover Government), nuclear power is highlighted as a technology that should be examined.
This is linked to the growing need for stable and flexible energy as transport, heating, and industry become increasingly electrified. Here, new reactor technologies such as small modular reactors (SMRs) and molten-salt reactors point to a potential that extends beyond electricity production.
The new technologies have the potential to deliver stable, CO₂-free energy to sectors that are difficult to transition, such as heavy industry, where high temperatures are required, or shipping and parts of aviation, where there are forms of energy that cannot easily be replaced by renewable energy alone. At the same time, they open up the possibility of producing and storing heat that can be used flexibly, for example in district heating systems or for hydrogen production. But realizing that potential requires common technical frameworks and documentation.
Danish Standards is now leading a new European standardization effort in this area. Together with Danish and European experts, the organization will develop a joint Code of Practice for corrosion testing of materials in molten-salt environments, with the aim of ensuring that materials and technology can be tested and documented for how well they withstand degradation in demanding environments.
"Regardless of which technologies are politically chosen or rejected, it is essential that decisions are made on an informed basis. This also applies to nuclear power. New energy technologies place high demands on safety, quality, and documentation, and this is where common technical frameworks play a central role," says Bent Lauritzen, head of the Centre for Nuclear Energy Technology at DTU.
With this new initiative, Danish Standards is establishing nuclear power as an independent focus area.
The purpose is to develop common technical frameworks for an area where uniform and reproducible test methods are currently lacking. The upcoming Code of Practice aims to ensure comparable test results across laboratories, support faster material qualification, and strengthen the technical basis for regulation.
"Standards are not about promoting one particular technology, but about ensuring quality, safety, and transparency. This is a prerequisite for both authorities and companies to be able to make robust decisions about new energy technologies," says Birgitte Ostertag, senior consultant for energy & transport and responsible for the initiative at Danish Standards.
As Denmark's national standardization organization, Danish Standards brings together companies, authorities, and research communities, and contributes to European and international standardization work through, among others, CEN, CENELEC, ISO, and IEC.
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