Gov’t has announced ambitious plans for deployment of new power reactors
Sweden should end its ban on uranium mining to allow it to be exploited like other natural resources, a government inquiry has concluded.
The inquiry has recommended that uranium be regulated as a “concession mineral” under the country’s Minerals Act.
This would allow deposits containing economic quantities of uranium to be exploited like other natural resources. The inquiry said the legislation required would enter into force on 1 January 2026.
The inquiry was announced in February 2024 to investigate the regulatory changes needed to make uranium extraction legal and analyse whether mining of uranium should be allowed.
In August 2023 Sweden’s climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari announced plans to lift the country’s ban on uranium mining and make way for greater nuclear energy capacity.
Uranium exploration and mining was banned in 2018 when the Swedish parliament passed an amendment to the environmental code.
The coalition government at the time, with the support of the Left Party and the rural-based Center Party, backed renewables and said nuclear energy had no place in the energy mix, which meant no place for uranium mining.
Since August 2018, no permits for uranium exploration or mining have been issued.
Uranium mining has become an issue of concern for Europe’s nuclear industry because Russia dominates the processing of the fuel. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has sought to reduce its energy dependence on Moscow.
Sweden is said to account for 80% of the EU’s uranium deposits and already extracts uranium as a waste product when mining for other metals.
Several companies, including Australia’s Aura Energy and Canada’s District Metals, have expressed interest in developing uranium sites in Sweden.
Background: Stockholm Aiming To Begin Construction
Sweden will begin construction on a new nuclear power plant before the country's next legislative election in 2026 as it pushes ahead with ambitious plans to increase nuclear capacity, prime minister Ulf Kristersson has said.
Kristersson’s right-wing coalition government has vowed to massively ramp up nuclear energy in Sweden, but a formal decision on the type of reactor to be built or a construction schedule has yet to be taken.
The government said in November 2023 it wanted to increase nuclear power production equivalent to two nuclear reactors by 2035, with a “massive expansion” to follow by 2045.
Sweden-based power company Vattenfall announced last year that it had shortlisted Rolls-Royce SMR and GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 SMR designs in an ongoing evaluation to potentially deploy new reactors at its existing Ringhals nuclear site in southwest Sweden.
Vattenfall wants to put the first SMR into operation in the first half of the 2030s. It has begun acquiring land in the area but has not yet applied for environmental permits.
Sweden’s six existing nuclear plants are at three sites: Forsmark, Oskarshamn and Ringhals. According to International Atomic Energy Agency data, nuclear energy provided 28.6% of the country’s electricity generation in 2023.
Vattenfall wants to deploy small modular reactors at its existing Ringhals nuclear site in southwest Sweden. Courtesy Vattenfall.
