In full revival of its nuclear program, Sweden turns to France. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, during a visit to Paris on Tuesday, spoke about the possibility of a partnership with France in the construction of the Scandinavian country’s future nuclear power plants, which took the helm of the rotating EU Council presidency on January 1.
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“The Franco-Swedish partnership has good potential in terms of nuclear energy,” said Ulf Kristersson in the courtyard of the Elysée Palace alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. “The new Swedish government is determined to build new nuclear power plants and we are very impressed by the French experience (…)”.
“I’m completely open to France being one of the countries making sure Sweden has more nuclear power,” he added, telling Swedish journalists that Sweden “needs to buy two nuclear reactors.”
The nuclear revival, a turning point in Sweden
The new right-wing coalition, which was formed in mid-October and includes the nationalists from the Democrats of Sweden (SD), promised as soon as it joined that new reactors would be built, completely breaking with the policies of the previous government. The nuclear revival is popular there, including with activist Greta Thunberg, who supports it. Under the eight-year Social Democrats in power, Sweden had halved its nuclear power output.
Six of its twelve power plants have been closed. Today, nuclear power provides a third of local electricity generation. The six reactors currently in operation at three different power plants in the country date from the decade 1975-1985.
The French nuclear industry is already present in Scandinavia. In Finland, Areva is working with Siemens to complete the EPR Olkiluoto 3, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2023 despite a twelve-year construction delay.
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From now on, the Finnish and Swedish neighbors want to rely on small SMR nuclear reactors, identical in construction to those that Emmanuel Macron wants to develop in France. In the Nordic countries, French manufacturers face local competition, notably Finnish energy company Fortum, which intends to specialize in this segment of small reactors.
(With AFP)