Swedish nuclear power is an important part of their fossil-free energy mix. Its importance will increase in line with the increased demand from Swedish industry and society. Electricity demand is expected to double in a couple of decades.
Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and is an abbreviation of its original name, Royal Waterfall Board.
Since the summer of 2022, Vattenfall has been conducting a study to examine the conditions for constructing at least two new small modular reactors (SMR) next to the Ringhals nuclear power plant. Since 2020, Vattenfall has also taken part in a pilot study together with Fermi Energia on building an SMR in Estonia.
Anna Borg is the CEO of Vattenfall. During this autumn, she and a delegation from Vattenfall will visit a number of selected countries and companies where new nuclear power is under construction. She said, “Vattenfall wants to invest in new nuclear power as well as other fossil-free power types. We are an player with experience, competence and access to places where nuclear power already currently exists. At the same time, no new nuclear power has been built in Sweden for several decades. The purpose of the trip is therefore to deepen the understanding of how new construction of nuclear power can be done quickly and efficiently, lessons learned, pitfalls, background to technology choices and regulatory conditions. We will look at both SMR and large-scale nuclear power.”
In addition to Anna Borg, Vattenfall CFO Kerstin Ahlfont, Torbjörn Wahlborg, Vattenfall’s Senior Vice President of Business Area Generation, Andreas Regnell, Vattenfall’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Development, and others will join the tour.
The delegation from Vattenfall will meet with power companies, technology suppliers and authorities connected to the countries’ respective nuclear power program. The countries on the itinerary are Canada, France and Great Britian. Representatives from companies in the U.S. and South Korea will also be part of the tour.
Vattenfall’s feasibility study on the new SMR reactors will end later this year. Within the framework of the pilot study, Vattenfall has begun work on creating an environmental impact statement that is required for an application. They have also carried out supplier inquiries. This is necessary in order to obtain a picture of both costs and other conditions that form the basis of a future investment decision.
Wahlborg said, “Different types of power sources have different prerequisites to be able to be developed. If a business player is to invest in new nuclear power, Sweden needs to stand behind a nuclear power program. There will be costs that need to be shared between the players. You might need to build several rather than an individual reactor as this provides a positive learning curve and increased cost efficiency. Building new nuclear power is also a national priority and therefore it is reasonable to think in terms of a nuclear power program.”