IEA wants more clarity on Swedish nuclear plans

OSLO: Having decided against phasing out nuclear power, Sweden needs to map out if, when and how ageing reactors will be replaced, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

"It's up to Sweden whether you want to have nuclear or not. But you will have the first reactor out in 2022, and the rest by the 2030s," Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA, told a webcast conference in Stockholm.

"You have to make the decision now," she said. "You need to have a consistent policy, so we are asking the Swedish government: what are you going to do?"

The IEA in an in-depth report on its energy sector said Sweden should develop post-2030 scenarios for nuclear in a future energy mix and recognise the hurdles new nuclear investment faces in a liberalised market.

It said Sweden also needed to develop a regulatory framework for licensing replacement reactors and new designs, as well as produce estimated timelines on approvals for investors.

Sweden has set an ambitious goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

It relies on 10 nuclear reactors with an installed capacity of 9,400 megawatts for about 40 percent of its domestic electricity consumption.

The Nordic country in 2009 reversed a decision to phase out nuclear energy, allowing the replacement of old reactors, on the condition that the new ones are built at existing sites and with industry bearing all costs.

State-owned utility Vattenfall, Germany's E.ON and Finland's Fortum share ownership of Sweden's nuclear reactors.

The country's first reactor, Oskarshamn-1, entered operation in 1972 and is expected to be decommissioned at the start of the next decade.