In a historic U-turn, Sweden's new center-right government has bet on nuclear power to achieve greater energy security as warnings of possible power cuts abound.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is lobbying for a new law to lift current restrictions on the number of Swedish nuclear reactors.
"We should be able to build more reactors in more places than we’ve been able to do up till now," Kristersson told Swedish media, citing an “obvious need for more electricity".
Furthermore, Sweden is considering restarting decommissioned nuclear reactors, such as that in Barsebäck, the closure of which in 2005 after a decades-long battle was celebrated as a huge environmental victory, including in neighboring Denmark.
The Nordic country at present has six problem-laden reactors in operation, half the number it once had, after consecutive governments (both right-wing and left-wing) closed them down in the wake of the landmark 1980 referendum. This process was only sped up after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. During the previous left-wing coalition, in which the Greens played a disproportionately large part, nuclear power was considered highly undesirable.
The centre-left Social Democrats slammed the most recent nuclear proposal by their archenemies the Moderates as "symbolic politics" and urged the government to focus on offshore wind projects instead. The Greens minced no words as they labelled the proposal a "nuclear fixation" which they considered to be "outdated" and "embarrassing".
Sweden has been under pressure to increase its power generation drastically because of massive industrial projects such as plans to make carbon-free steel, mine iron ore and produce batteries in the northern part of the country. Among other things, the state-owned mining company LKAB said that going entirely carbon-free would require the electricity equivalent to one-third of the entire nation’s output.
At the same time, the country has been swept by the pan-European energy crisis exacerbated by massive sanctions against Russian energy meant to be a "punishment" for its special operation in Ukraine.
Historically a net power exporter, Sweden has stumbled into spiraling shortages amid dire warnings of power cuts from cabinet ministers. Swedes were also encouraged to step up their preparedness, save electricity, collect water in tubs and limit the number of rooms they live in this winter. The Moderates-led government and Social Democrats-led opposition have vigorously debated who is to blame for the exorbitant electricity prices.
Sweden is the latest European nation to resort to nuclear power in a bid to bolster its energy output. Germany and Belgium have reversed their shutdown policy and prolonged the life of some reactors, and the UK plans to start work on eight new reactors by 2030.