Blykalla is applying to build eight smaller reactors, with a total output of up to 400 megawatts, in Untra in Tierp municipality between Gävle and Uppsala.
This is Blykalla's second project. The company's previous application concerns the Norrsundet strait north of Gävle. In total, there are now six different projects underway to build new nuclear power in Sweden.
More applications are coming
But why not in southernmost Sweden, where the electricity shortage is greater and electricity prices are higher?
We are looking at many places in Sweden, says Jacob Stedman.
"There will be more applications," he continues.
He describes the US and Sweden as among the hottest nuclear power nations today. In the US, it is very much driven by the enormous electricity needs of all the data centres under construction.
There are several data centres in the Gävle region. Are they potential electricity customers for the new reactors?
"Yes, but that's how it is, absolutely," says Stedman.
The cost of construction is about tens of billions of kronor, according to the CEO.
No "electricity discriminator"
Regarding data centres being the customers that new nuclear power should go to, Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) responds:
I am not an electricity discriminator, no matter what types of power we have in Sweden. I am a big fan of wind power and have made lots of different changes in laws to promote wind power. In the same way, I do not discriminate about who the customers are.
Whether all nuclear power applications now fit within the framework of the financing plan the government has set is somewhat unclear.
Our plan is a need of 2,500 megawatts. Today's application is about 18 percent of that, says Romina Pourmokhtari.
The government's review of Blykalla's application is the first step in a multi-year process.
After any approval, there will be a review by the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority, a review under the Environmental Code at the Land and Environmental Court, and a municipal review in the municipality of Tierp.
Planned start of operations is in the first half of the 2030s.
