Sweden Plans to Restore Uranium Extraction

The Swedish government proposed to remove a uranium mining ban to reduce the need for imports, since Sweden considers the possibility to restore nuclear power. The change is due to take place from 1 January 2026 and means that the ban in the nation’s environmental law will be removed.

The ban on mining was introduced in 2018 by the previous Swedish government. The coalition government at the time, with the support of the Left Party and the rural-based Center Party, backed renewables and said nuclear energy had no place in the energy mix, which meant no place for uranium mining. Since August 2018, no permits for uranium exploration or mining have been issued. Local municipalities in Sweden can currently veto applications for uranium mines and a separate process is also underway to decide whether this veto right should also be scrapped. Most of the known uranium deposits are in the north of the country.

Sweden currently has six reactors in operation at three NPPs and Vattenfall plans to build several new units over the next decade to meet the growth in power demand. Sweden generates about a third of its electricity from nuclear but relies completely on imported uranium from nations including Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan. State-owned utility Vattenfall AB has also purchased russian fuel in the past, but those deliveries stopped in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.

According to Bloomberg