VLISSINGEN-OOST, The Netherlands On this windswept peninsula near the Belgian border, the trees grow shrubby and the dune grasses bow horizontally before the North Seas gusts. But along the coast, industrial spires rise vertically, defying nature and creating a skyline of steeples to the rival faiths in this countrys energy future.

Ivory-colored wind turbines bristle from flat meadows. Gray smokestacks reach skyward from an oil refinerys bramble of metal pipes. Steel pylons tower over the salt-sprayed landscape, fringing the two-lane road with a garland of high-voltage power lines.

Yet for half a century, the steadiest emission-free energy here has come from inside what looks like a stubby, dull-looking grain silo.

Thats the Borssele Nuclear Power Station, the only full-scale commercial reactor the Dutch ever built. Opened in 1973, the complex machine for capturing the energy from split uranium atoms was the second reactor built in the country, and it provides about 3% of the Netherlands electricity. Its relatively small compared to other plants of the time, as it was originally planned as the first of six in this area. But that was back in fission electricitys midcentury glory days, before Chernobyl and Fukushima transformed from far-flung place names into synonyms for catastrophe that compelled many nations to abandon their atomic ambitions and embrace fossil fuels.

The Borssele reactors lonely 49 years may soon come to an end.

If the plant were 100 miles east, in Germany, or a mere 10 miles south, in Belgium, that would almost certainly mean that the reactor despite currently having regulatory permits to operate for at least 12 more years was shutting down early. But unlike its two closest neighbors, which have rapidly decommissioned their own nuclear stations while squeamishly burning more gas and coal, the Netherlands plans to build at least two new reactors in the coming years.