Sweden to expand nuclear power to boost energy security

Stockholm: Sweden will add to its nuclear power capacities to fast-track the country's transition to fossil-free electricity production while securing energy supply in times of crisis, the government said.

The announcement came as the government was launching an inquiry into the future role of atomic energy, marking a shift from the previous policy to gradually switch to 100 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2040, reports Xinhua news agency.

The new goal is to achieve 100 per cent fossil-free electricity production by the same year, in quantities sufficient to enable the electrification of the transport sector, and to meet the growing energy needs of the industry, such as battery factories and plants using hydrogen instead of coal to produce green steel.

The inquiry will look into options to streamline and speed up the permitting processes for nuclear power.

"We need to streamline the regulatory framework and prepare our authorities for applications that may be submitted for (the construction of) both conventional and small modular reactors. This applies to both existing and new technologies," Romina Pourmokhtari, Minister for Climate and the Environment, said in a statement.

More nuclear power would also mean more stable and competitive electricity prices while ensuring a safe and robust energy supply for both military and civil use, the government said in the press release.

While the share of wind power increased to 19 per cent of all electricity produced in Sweden in 2022, from around 3,500 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2010 to 33,000 GWh last year, the government says that more predictable forms of energy, such as nuclear power, are key to ensuring stable electricity supply at any given time.

Meanwhile, the Swedish Energy Agency has calculated that the country's electricity consumption may double to 280 terawatt hours (TWh) per year by 2035 and to 370 TWh by 2045.

Hydroelectric power has long been the most important source of electricity production in Sweden, but due to the rapid expansion of nuclear power in the 1970s, the Nordic nation at one point had 12 operating nuclear reactors.

However, a referendum in 1980 -- the year after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident -- ruled that all reactors should be decommissioned by 2010.

This date was later reconsidered in two broad political agreements.

Following the decommissioning of six reactors between 1999 and 2020, six operating units now remain at three sites in Sweden, accounting for around 30 per cent of the country's total electricity production, according to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.