Mads Bunch Larsen, Danish Political Scientist, Outdoorsman, Nuclear Advocate, February 25’

Meet the Dane Exposing the Dark Side Behind the Danish Energy Curtain

Larsen, in Vienna, for a climate outreach internship with the IAEA where he studied the economics of SMRs.

Mads Bunch Larsen grew up in “the cradle of anti-nuclearism”, in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. In the 1960s and 1970s, Denmark bought into a degrowth mindset and an environmental opposition to nuclear energy adopted from the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements in the United States. 

Despite that background, Larsen emerged as a champion of nuclear energy, as one of several young leaders spearheading a modern pro-nuclear movement within Denmark since 2020. The fight for nuclear in Denmark in recent years stemmed from the efforts of Foreningen Atomkraft Ja Tak, a nonprofit focused on energy education created by political science and economics students. 

Along with being a board member and speaker at Foreningen Atomkraft Ja Tak, Larsen worked at start-up electricity company Kärnfull Energi DK from 2022 to 2024, learning about grid dynamics, and served as a climate outreach intern at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2024. 

Larsen has always loved exploring nature and appreciating the natural world, which fostered his concern for climate change well before he thought about and became passionate about nuclear. For many years, due to Denmark’s proclaimed progress on renewables, Larsen felt that he had little need to change anything. 

Additionally, opposition to nuclear was entrenched in the population, with around 80% of people opposing the energy source for decades, and a high stigma for support. While Larsen never fully opposed nuclear energy, he did feel the stigma when he became a vocal supporter of nuclear. 

“It was like being a Nazi sympathizer,” Larsen said. “People hated nuclear energy, and we hated it so much we made Sweden shut down some of their reactors. And I suppose people just didn’t mind coal all that much. The degrowth mentality in Denmark was extremely strong - people genuinely believed that we could just consume less.” 

Larsen added that nuclear plants were viewed as cogs in the capitalist machine and the country instead focused on energy efficiency and wind turbines. In fairness to that effort, he said, Denmark is a world leader in wind, which supplies over 50% of their electricity. 

Although Denmark’s renewable efforts are impressive, they are not without problems, and there is an increasing need for firm, nuclear power, according to Larsen. One problem lies in the lack of ideal sites for more wind generation; the remaining options are often either pristine nature spaces or would force local communities to relocate. Additionally, grid reliability is threatened by the intermittent nature of renewables, making Denmark reliant on neighboring countries to import electricity during times of low wind. 

“Denmark is an excellent example of what renewables can and can't do. You can remain without power outages until a pretty high share of intermittent renewable energy. That's the case in Denmark, but only so because we have neighbors like Norway and Sweden that produce incredible amounts of dispatchable clean power,” Larsen said. “So we are able to import upwards of 70 to 80% of our total consumption in some hours when the wind isn't blowing, the sun isn't shining.” 

Larsen also said there is a darker side, “behind the curtain of the rosy Danish energy transition”; the vast majority of Danish renewable energy comes from burning biomass - wooden biomass from trees in Brazil, the U.S., Estonia, and Poland. Coal plants have been retrofitted to burn biomass and provide the country with heat and electricity, especially on days of Dunkeflaute (no wind or sun). 

Denmark needs to realize they are not the clean energy leaders they think themselves to be, Larsen said. Denmark’s electricity is much dirtier than nuclear-powered France and Sweden and when looking at total primary energy consumption only 10% comes from clean energy sources.  

“People get appalled when they hear how reliant Denmark is on combustible energy, and people are appalled that what they thought they knew was true is wrong, and so that this whole narrative-driven advocacy has helped a lot,” Larsen said. 

Foreningen Atomkraft Ja Tak hopes to replace biomass with nuclear energy. Partially as a result of their efforts, public opinion has shifted and the majority of Danes now support nuclear energy; 55% are in favor, 27% are against, and 18% still do not know. 

“What we really want to do now is to take this change in public opinion and turn it into political action. We want to focus and target more people who are in power of decisions,” Larsen said. “That means talking to not just people in parliament in Denmark, but also talking to stakeholders in the energy transition.” 

The organization has helped usher the shift in public opinion through social media advocacy. In addition to social media advocacy and traveling to energy conferences around the world, Foreningen Atomkraft Ja Tak speaks at high schools and universities throughout Denmark about nuclear energy. 

Larsen holds optimism for nuclear energy’s prospects in Denmark; he believes the ban on nuclear energy since 1985 will fall within the next two years, the country will build its first nuclear plant before 2050, and SMRs will be widely deployed. 

For his IAEA internship, Larsen studied the economics of SMRs. He concluded that they will be more expensive than large reactors at first in terms of overnight costs (in capacity per dollar), but that they will be easier to finance due to less capital and shorter build times. He predicted they would become viable economically, hopefully by 2030, but likely not before. 

In the nascent Danish nuclear movement, Larsen said Atomkraft Ja Tak distinguishes itself as a unique nuclear communicator because their leaders are political scientists and economists with high strategic communication skills. Larsen said the organization understands the power of narrative and how to take control of the narratives, taking into consideration the political landscape and what worries people and politicians. 

Larsen used his communication skills to convince his grandmother of the benefits of nuclear energy. 

“She gets all her electricity from nuclear energy (through a PPA with Kärnfull Energi), and she puts our stickers everywhere in her house and tells everyone that she's using nuclear energy in her house,” Larsen said. “She's 84 now, and, not from a generation who normally supports nuclear energy, at least in Denmark. 

As part of his nuclear advocacy, Larsen attended New York Climate Week, the European Nuclear Energy Forum, and both of the UN Conferences on Climate Change in 2023 and 2024, COP 28 and COP 29. These events helped Larsen foster relationships with the clean energy communities from around the world and showed him that nuclear energy had become much more mainstream. While in the UAE for COP 28, Larsen visited the Barakah Nuclear Plant, an amazing sight for him because the single plant produces enough electricity to meet 125% of Denmark’s annual demand, completely carbon free. 

Moving forward, Larsen wants to stay in Denmark to ensure the country repeals its ban on nuclear energy. Outside of nuclear, Larsen hikes, skis, forages for mushrooms, and climbs, and hopes to protect these outdoor spaces by advocating for nuclear energy. Above all, he views nuclear as a tool in the fight against climate change. 

“What got me interested in nuclear energy is that I saw it as a proven method of deep, deep decarbonization, and one where you battle climate change, not just when the wind blows and the sun shines, but 24/7 365,” Larsen said.