At 11.45, climate and environment minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) meets the media together with energy and business minister Ebba Busch, civil defense minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin and the chairman of the business committee Tobias Andersson to present the government’s next step to facilitate new nuclear power.
The government wants to introduce a fast track for new nuclear power. A new investigation will also review the nuclear waste program and the regulations for Sweden’s preparedness zones.
There are currently six reactors in operation at three locations in Sweden, but the government has said that obstacles must be removed so that more reactors can be built.
The government is now appointing an investigation that will review the legal and technical aspects when it comes to new nuclear power. The goal is to streamline and shorten trial times.
Among other things, a “fast track” for nuclear power is to be introduced in the environmental permit process, according to the government. This means that matters for new nuclear power must be treated with high priority. At the same time, they want to create the conditions for small modular reactors (SMR) in Sweden.
Over 100 million
The investigation must also review the application fee that is paid to the Radiation Safety Authority when a new reactor is built.
Today, it is SEK 100 million for a reactor that replaces an old one. According to the Tidö agreement between the government and the Social Democratic Party, it must be “vigorously reduced”.
The fee must be appropriate and take into account new reactor types, according to the investigation directives. This is because new applications in the future may include both conventional reactors and SMRs.
The investigation will also review Sweden’s nuclear waste program. The disposal of nuclear waste has been a hot political topic, largely because of the questions that exist when it comes to storing radioactive waste in bedrock for tens of thousands of years. When, or if, new reactors are built, it can create more waste and thus new intermediate storage and final storage need to be investigated, according to the government.
It has previously been reported that the intermediate warehouse in Oskarshamn is at risk of being full and the government has subsequently decided whether the warehouse can be expanded.