When the current government took office in 2022, new nuclear power was one of the major election promises. And it was promised to start building new reactors during the term of office, that is, no later than next year. But that timeline has already burst even if the government does everything to keep the pace up.
Large amounts of permits must be applied for, nature reserves around Ringhals must be taken into use, suppliers of the new reactors must be selected.
Vattenfall, which is the actor that has come the farthest, has said that no investment decision will be made until at least 2029. Then Sweden may have a new government with other thoughts on which energy sources to invest in.
The largest opposition party, Socialdemokraterna, is not against new nuclear power, but the criticism has been harsh against the government's model for financing. A few weeks ago, the state support unit was opened, where nuclear power builders can turn, and Vattenfall has said that an application will be submitted during the autumn.
Partly, the state will have to provide loans of several hundred billion kronor, partly the one who builds and operates the new reactors will be guaranteed a minimum electricity price for the produced nuclear power – a bill that electricity buyers will have to take. At present and possibly for many years to come, the assessments are that Sweden rather has too much electricity production, the electricity is too cheap, at least for the producers, which makes it harder to justify the giant investments, with higher costs for taxpayers as a result. The industry's presumed increased demand for electricity has, after all, been postponed to the future.
Moreover, nuclear power experts and critics have pointed out that many other international nuclear power projects have become significantly more expensive than expected and also been many years delayed, something that also risks ending up in the lap of the state and taxpayers.
At the earliest, in the middle of the 2030s, Vattenfall may have a first new reactor in operation, the state-owned energy giant has said.
