Swedish government removes nuclear power promise from website

The Swedish government has quietly walked back an announcement that it would build at least 10 nuclear reactors by 2040 as part of its plan to ditch fossil fuels.

Romina Pourmokhtari, Sweden’s climate and environment minister, announced earlier this month that Sweden needed to double electricity production in the next two decades in order to meet its climate goals.

An accompanying statement said that “Sweden will need three times as much nuclear power in 20 years”.

But the statement was quickly taken down from the government website and replaced with one that makes no mention of the ten new reactors.

Daniel Liljeberg, state secretary to the minister for energy, business and industry, said there is no official target matching Ms Pourmokhtari’s statement.

Too expensive

Mr Liljeberg told the Swedish daily Aftonbladet the government has not established targets or assessments at that level of detail.

Insiders say Ms Pourmokhtari “exceeded her powers” when she announced publicly that the government’s aim was to put at least ten conventional reactors into operation during the 2030s and 2040s, Aftonbladet reported.

Environmental experts had criticised the government announcement, saying the new reactors would be too expensive and not meet needs fast enough.

The plans marked a dramatic change from the country’s current capacity for nuclear power, where six reactors currently account for around 30 per cent of its electricity production.

In June, Sweden’s coalition government adopted a new energy target, changing it to “100 per cent fossil-free” electricity from “100 per cent renewable”, giving the green light to push forward a new energy strategy relying on expanding its nuclear power network.

‘We need clean electricity’

“This creates the conditions for nuclear power,” finance minister Elisabeth Svantesson said in parliament. “We need more electricity production, we need clean electricity and we need a stable energy system.”

In 2016, Sweden’s parties agreed that new reactors could be built at existing sites, but without subsidies, these have been seen as too expensive.

The new right-of-centre coalition has said that new reactors are essential to ensure the shift to a fossil-free economy, promising generous loans.

Around 98 per cent of electricity in Sweden is already generated from renewables and nuclear plants.