Swedish utility Vattenfall has applied for state financing to build new reactors at its Ringhals plant, it said on Tuesday, the first company to do so under a scheme the government hopes will lead to a renaissance in nuclear power.

State-owned Vattenfall, through its majority-owned nuclear project company subsidiary Videberg Kraft, plans to build small, modular reactors (SMRs) at Ringhals, on the Värö Peninsula, southwest Sweden.

Vattenfall said in a statement that on 23 December that Videberg Kraft’s chief executive officer Desirée Comstedt submitted an application for “financing and risk-sharing” to the Swedish government.