Vattenfall has decided to proceed with the suppliers American GE Vernova and British Rolls-Royce. Both of these manufacture SMR (Small Modular Reactors).
"Considering the conditions at the current reactor site on the Värö peninsula, these actors are deemed to have the best conditions to deliver within a reasonable time and budget," Vattenfall writes in the press release.
Building small reactors is considered to be cheaper:
"Building a series of smaller units provides clear cost advantages; they take up less space, require a significantly smaller workforce and mean more manageable logistics. It also increases the possibility of finding, housing and transporting employees during the construction phase, which reduces the risk of increased costs," says Desirée Comstedt, head of new nuclear power at Vattenfall, in a comment.
1,500 megawatt
Vattenfall plans a project with either five BWRX-300 from GE Vernova or three Rolls-Royce SMR. This would provide a total output of 1,500 megawatt, which corresponds to approximately 1.5 reactors. A 500 megawatt SMR has the same capacity as the first large-scale reactor in Oskarshamn.
State-owned Vattenfall has thus taken another major step in the plans to have new Swedish nuclear power in place in the mid-2030s.
Ever since the current government took office in 2022, hard work has been done on the election promise to establish new nuclear power in Sweden. A first groundbreaking ceremony for new reactors was promised before the end of the term of office, i.e. no later than next year.
Broken timeline
But that timeline has already been broken. Even if Vattenfall is preparing new reactors at the existing nuclear power plant in Ringhals, no investment decision will be made until at least 2029, the management of the state-owned energy giant
Last week, the government opened the "store" where nuclear power builders can apply for state support - a model that has been heavily criticized by both experts and the opposition for risking becoming expensive for taxpayers. It involves several hundred billion kronor in state loans, plus 40-year guarantees of a minimum electricity price that nuclear power producers can rely on to dare invest - price guarantees that electricity buyers will have to pay for.
Vattenfall has so far said that they plan to apply for state support during the autumn.
