The Swiss government has ruled out any return to nuclear power once current stations are shut down.

At the end of August the Senate Energy Committee recommended that Switzerland restrict itself to banning the construction of nuclear power stations “of the current generation", leaving the door open for the construction of new generation reactors in the future.

“This would leave the nuclear option on the table and create a lot of confusion,” the government said in its response to the proposal on Thursday.

The government announced in May that it would phase out the use of nuclear power by 2034 by not replacing the country’s existing nuclear reactors when they reached the end of their lifespan.

The government said it was not closed to new technological innovations, but believed that the path of non-replacement of nuclear power stations should not be open to misinterpretation.

It said the decision to abandon nuclear power sent a strong signal to the markets and to investors in new energy technologies.

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