"I'm definitely in favor," Aaviksoo said on Vikerradio's morning show on Tuesday in response to a question about how he views nuclear energy.

"My belief is that the sensible development of nuclear energy is the technology of the future and it must definitely be done in much greater pan-European or at least regional cooperation. In the case of Estonia, cooperation with Finland, because risk management should be broader than just one country," Aaviksoo said.

Regarding accidents, which have happened at other nuclear plants, Aaviksoo said accidents have happened in other energy companies as well and it is not clear, which is the most dangerous.

"But it is clear that there is a psychological barrier here and it needs to be addressed - both technologically and with social psychologically," the academic stressed.

"We can see that the nuclear plants in Belgium and France are working, in Germany, they are not, in Finland they are but not in Sweden. This shows that the main core of the problem is not technology, but rather people's attitudes and general approach, both at political and population level," Aaviksoo said.

The academic said that there has to be flexibility and sensible independence in energy production, which means that a significant part of the production needs to be under the control of Estonia and its trustworthy partners.

Currently, the problem is the sources for renewable energy - sun and wind are not accessible stably and that's why it's necessary to create a buffer mechanism, Aaviksoo said. At the same time, energy production can't be too expensive, he added.

"I think there's a place for nuclear energy in Europe and elsewhere in the world. It's definitely important to continue with wind and solar energy production, but it's clear that it is more efficient to produce solar energy in Sahara than in Estonia," he said.

Aaviksoo is a politician and physicist, a former rector of the University of Tartu and Tallinn University of Technology. He has also been the Minister of Defence and Minister of Education and Research.

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