Sweden’s environment minister wants nuclear reactors closed; company says no plans to do so
The Green Party environment minister wants Sweden to close two nuclear power plant reactors over the next four years, the company that runs nuclear power in Sweden has no plans to do so, Swedish Radio News reports.
Mats Ladeborn, head of nuclear power development at Vattenfall, says the Green Party shouldn’t talk about closing reactors unless there is a political decision to back it up.
“Phasing out nuclear power plants is more a matter of safety than a matter of political will,” Ladeborn tells Swedish Radio.
Despite the Green Party’s ambitions to close reactors the government is currently not working on a political proposal to shut any of them down.
Instead, Green Party spokesperson Åsa Romson says the power plants have to bear more of their social costs, and this eventually will mean that the power plants will have to close.
But Mats Ladeborn, at Vattenfall, does not share this view and says that the reactors already bear their social costs.
“The way we see it, the nuclear reactors will run for as long as they were intended to when they were built. We have no plans on closing any of them down anytime soon,” he says.
A miscalculation, according to Romson who responds by saying that “no nuclear power plant in the world could possibly bear its social costs”.
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Finland: Solar and wind power yield cheapest energy say Finnish experts, Yle News
Norway: Three years on, still no deal on nuclear accident warning for Norway, Barents Observer
Russia: Russia wants Total out of Arctic project, Barents Observer
Sweden: More nuclear waste stored in the sea?, Radio Sweden
United States: Keystone XL – Bad for Alaska Crude?, Alaska Public Radio Network
