Sweden and nuclear power

Official Name: Kingdom of Sweden.

Summary: Sweden, with its advanced manufacturing and technology industries, depends on electricity generated from nuclear and hydropower plants to meet many of its needs, although it continues to investigate and explore alternative energy sources.

The Kingdom of Sweden is a Nordic country with a population of approximately 10.5 million residents and a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of about $64,200 per year. Located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in northern Europe, Sweden is bordered by Norway to the west and Finland to the east, linking to Denmark via the Øresund Bridge. The Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, and the Drogden Strait all border Sweden, providing it with an extensive shoreline. A constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government, Sweden possesses a highly developed economy, with special strengths in industrial production and technology.

Because Sweden has few fossil fuels, it has been a leader in the development of alternative energy sources, including hydropower, biomass, and wind power. Although Sweden has traditionally generated much of its electricity through nuclear plants, this has remained controversial and is frequently a topic of dispute in domestic elections. Despite its northern latitude, most of Sweden enjoys a temperate climate, with only the regions in the far north experiencing a subarctic climate.

Economic Power

Sweden emerged as a great military and economic power during the seventeenth century, having previously been an impoverished and scarcely populated region on the edges of Europe. Sweden greatly expanded the region it controlled during this period, enlarging its territory to include modern Finland, some of the Baltic states, and parts of Russia and Germany. After a series of disastrous battles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sweden lost most of its empire, entering into a union with Norway that lasted from 1814 until 1905. Politically neutral, Sweden has not engaged in a foreign war since 1814, and it has pursued a policy of nonalignment since the nineteenth century. Its neutrality has permitted Sweden to concentrate on its economic development, and it has developed an economy that provides one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Sweden’s resource base is limited to iron ore, hydropower, and timber, but that has not prevented it from developing an export-based manufacturing economy with strengths in telecommunications, automobiles, and munitions. Most of Sweden’s industrial concerns are controlled by private interests, although it does have a tax rate that exceeds 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Although Sweden is a member of the European Union (EU), it maintains its own currency, the krona, having rejected adoption of the euro in a national referendum.

Sweden has few natural fossil fuel resources of its own, so it was rocked by the global fuel embargo that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) mounted in 1973 in response to Western nations’ resupply efforts that enabled Israel to withstand the Yom Kippur War. As a result of the global oil crisis that followed OPEC’s embargo, Swedish leaders resolved to decrease that nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. Sweden has very small amounts of coal, one of the most common fuels used to power electricity-generating plants. During the 1970s, Sweden initiated a drive to generate most of its electricity from hydropower or nuclear power. Sweden had begun researching nuclear energy as early as 1947, when it established the Atomic Energy Research Organization. As a result, Sweden was readily able to build 12 nuclear reactors to provide commercial service during the 1970s and 1980s. After the 1979 Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station accident in the United States, opposition to nuclear power in Sweden grew. A national referendum was held in 1980, at which time three options were provided to the voting public.

The first option advocated a phaseout of nuclear power as plants became outdated; the second option was similar, although it also sought more government ownership of power plants; and the third option demanded a phaseout of nuclear power within 10 years. Although none of the options won a majority of votes, the second option won more than the others, with nearly 39 percent of the votes cast. The Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) at the time interpreted this result to mean that nuclear power should be phased out by 2010, although that date had appeared in none of the options. As few alternative energy sources emerged that could take the place of the electricity generated by nuclear plants, in 2009, the decommissioning policy was altered so that new reactors could replace older ones. Polls suggest that a majority of Swedes favor maintaining nuclear energy as a source of electricity, and more than 50 percent favor building new plants.

Nuclear Power

In 2024, Sweden had six active nuclear power plants. The Forsmark plant has three reactors, Oskarshamm has one, while the Ringhals plant has two. Nuclear power plants previously operated in Agesta and Barsebäck. The plant in Agesta operated between 1964 and 1974, at which time it was closed, and the nuclear reactors at Barsebäck were closed between 1999 (Block 1) and 2005 (Block 2). In 2015, Oskarshamm decided to shut down two of its reactors permanently, with O2 shutting down in 2015 and O1 in 2017. Two reactors at Ringhals previously shut down. Together, the nuclear plants supply Sweden with about 40 percent (2024) of its electricity. In 2024, Swedish nuclear power plants generated 6,944 MWh of electricity.

Hydropower

Sweden also receives about 41 percent (2022) of its electricity from hydropower, the precise amount each year depending on annual precipitation. Hydropower is energy that is derived from moving water’s force through waterwheels, dams, hydraulic pipes, and other devices. Sweden, with its many streams, rivers, and fjords, provides ideal resources for hydropower. From the 1940s through the 1960s, Sweden invested heavily in its hydropower capacity, so that by the 1960s hydroelectric power plants accounted for almost 100 percent of Sweden’s electricity needs. Growing demand resulted in the need for alternative sources, which is why nuclear power plants were built. Sweden continues to invest in undeveloped rivers, although strong protests from environmentalists forced further development in the north of the nation to stop during the 1960s. Strong environmental legislation protects four national rivers—the Kalix, Pite, Torne, and Vindel Rivers—from further development.

Hydropower generating stations play an important part in stabilizing the entire alternating current (AC) power system, given their excellent regulation properties. AC power grids require that the power fed into and out of the grid should at all times be equal, and hydropower generating stations can quickly alter the amount of power they generate, therefore allowing them to serve as a stabilizing force. As the generation of wind power increases, the role of hydropower generating stations in providing stabilization is expected to grow considerably. The Swedish hydropower industry focuses mainly on maintenance, refurbishment, and improved efficiency of the system.

Swedish politicians provide support for renewable energy sources and increased efficiency through multibillion-dollar investments and energy taxes. Home heating moved from predominantly relying on oil boilers in the 1970s to electric-powered heat pumps in single-family homes by the 2020s. Multi-family structures used district heating. The transition from oil to heat pumps was accomplished by introducing a carbon tax in 1990. This caused the cost of heating oil to increase and made electric heat pumps an attractive option. Testimonials by friends and neighbors, as well as subsidies, prompted even more people to switch to electric heat pumps in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.

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