Sweden selects small modular reactors for new power expansion, government split on sick Gaza children, and other news from Sweden on Friday.
Sweden selects small modular reactors for new power expansion, government split on sick Gaza children, and other news from Sweden on Friday.
Sweden selects small modular reactors for new power expansion, government split on sick Gaza children, and other news from Sweden on Friday.
Sweden selects small modular reactors for new power expansion
Sweden said on Thursday that it had selected so-called small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) for its first nuclear power expansion in a half-century.
The government said three to five of the next-generation reactors would be built at the Ringhals plant in southwestern Sweden, providing around 1,500 megawatts – the equivalent of two classic reactors.
“For the first time in 50 years, new nuclear power will be built in Sweden,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference.
The Scandinavian country voted in a non-binding 1980 referendum to phase out nuclear power, and since then has shut down six of its 12 ageing reactors.
But a political majority is now in favour of extending nuclear power, along with renewable energy sources, to reduce its use of fossil fuels.
Sweden’s state energy utility Vattenfall, which had also been considering classic reactor technology, said either British group Rolls-Royce or American group GE Vernova would be selected as the supplier.
Chief executive Anna Borg said the cost of the project “was still a matter of negotiation”, adding that Vattenfall aimed to have the new reactors built by around 2035.
Swedish vocabulary: investeringsbeslut – investment decision
Sweden Democrats clash with government over treating Gaza children
The Liberal Party is pushing for Sweden to provide healthcare for sick and injured children from the Gaza Strip, but Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson is opposed to the proposal.
“We are not going to allow such a proposal to take place,” Åkesson said.
The government has said it does not rule out providing treatment to children from Gaza in Swedish hospitals, and the Liberals are strongly in favour.
“If Sweden can make a difference to Palestinian civilians through taking in a small number of sick children from Gaza, I think we should do that,” Joar Forssell, the Liberal party’s foreign policy spokesperson, told Sweden’s public broadcaster SR.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said the proposal presented “many big administrative hurdles”.
Swedish vocabulary: svårigheter – difficulties/hurdles
Increase in re-emigration grants is ‘risk of fraud’
The Swedish Payments Agency has warned that the government’s plans to give up to 350,000 kronor for people who return to their home countries will create “a significantly increased risk of fraud and misuse”,
“As soon as there are bigger payments, it will become more attractive for criminals to try and misappropriate them,” the agency’s Director General Per Eleblad said.
He said people who have already left Sweden but are still registered as living in Sweden were likely to apply for the grants, and that others would try and get payments for people who do not even exist.
“Perhaps the most advanced variant would be people with multiple identities who return on one identity and remain in another,” he said.
The Swedish Tax Agency has also been critical in its response to the enquiry, warning of the risk that people with multiple identities could misappropriate the grants.
Swedish vocabulary: att tillskansa sig – to misappropriate for oneself
State mortgage bank expects rate cut in September
Sweden’s state-owned mortgage bank, SBAB, has said a cut in interest rates in September is likely, after the Riksbank kept the rate steady at its August meeting.
“It takes time for an interest rate cut to have its full effect on the economy. Unless there’s another surprise rise in inflation in August, it’s reasonable to expect the Riksbank to lower the policy rate in September,” the bank’s chief economist Robert Boije wrote in a written comment.
If the bank makes a cut in September, SBAB expects variable rates to drop below 3 percent in the autumn.
Swedish vocabulary: rimlig – reasonable