The Swiss government should consider changing its licensing procedure for planned new nuclear plants in an effort to save “years of painstaking planning without concrete results” and avoid unnecessary costs, the managing director of the Swiss Nuclear Forum has said.

Lukas Aebi told NucNet that according to Switzerland’s Nuclear Energy Act, three licences are required to build a nuclear power plant in Switzerland – a general licence, a construction licence and an operating licence.

“This authorisation procedure takes years and generates unnecessary costs,” Aebi said.

“For this reason, it should be discussed whether the general licence should be removed from the Nuclear Energy Act or whether the construction and operating licences should be merged.

“This could save years of painstaking planning without concrete results, Aebi said.”