Activists dressed up as sun power, hydropower and wind power talk to a member of the Swedish parliament before the votation. Photo: Greenpeace.
Last week much of the spotlights in Sweden were directed towards the royal wedding here in Stockholm. But competing for the attention of people strolling around in town were also activists colourfully dressed up as renewable energies, protesting against the decision to allow the construction of new nuclear reactors.
As I have written here earlier, nuclear power has been a well-debated matter in Sweden ever since the 1980 referendum, which after enormous debates decided to phase out Sweden’s 12 nuclear reactors before 2010. This target was later abandoned, but two reactors have been closed.
The 10 remaining reactors stand for about half of Sweden’s electricity production. In the face of climate change the discussion about nuclear power once again surged.
Last week the decision was taken to permit new reactors to be built in Sweden. The total number of reactors cannot exceed 10 though, so they would be replacing old ones.
The parliament also decided that the construction of nuclear power plants should not be subsidised by the Swedish state and that the owners of reactors will be fully responsible to pay for the damages in case of an accident.
The parliament debate about this took a whole day, eight hours, and the divisions between opposers and advocates were sharp.
– This could mean that Sweden makes itself dependent on nuclear power for 100 more years and there will be 100,000 years of consequences for future generations who will have to take care of the waste, said Maria Wettergren from the green opposition party.
Environment minister Andreas Carlgren admitted that he was once upon a time himself among the protestors against nuclear power. But with climate change reality has changed, he said.
– Vi prolong the nuclear parenthesis, but it’s still a parenthesis.
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