How's this for a country that's "phasing out" nuclear....
(PS. an RBMK is the same type of reactor as Chernobyl, though with some post-accident modifications)
NUCLEONICS WEEK JANUARY 5, 2006
Sweden may begin importing output from Leningrad in 2009
A Swedish industrial consortium signed a 15-year agreement Dec. 21 to begin importing electricity from Russia's Leningrad nuclear plant, with delivery set to begin in 2009 if a transmission line is built from Russia to Finland. The deal between Basel, a 15-member group of Swedish electricity-intensive industries, and Russia's United Power is worth between 20- and 40-billion kronor (U.S.$2.5- and $5-billion), according to Jan Johansson, chairman of the Basel board of directors. Johansson is also chief executive of the Boliden mining company and a former Vattenfall vice president. United Power is majority owned by Russian regional utility Baltenergo, which is in turn 51% owned by Rosenergoatom (REA), Russia's national nuclear utility. REA authorities have said that they will use money from the power exports to build a new reactor at Leningrad (NW, 1 Sept. '05, 6). The station has four aging RBMK units that are undergoing life extension. The agreement also includes electricity import from Russian hydropower and fossil-fired plants. About 8.7 terawatt-hours would be imported annually. Roughly two-thirds of the electricity would come from fossil plants, with the restfrom hydro plants and Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant.
Swedish Greens criticized the deal. Green Party co-leader Peter Eriksson said the agreement is "horrible from an environmental viewpoint, because it includes import from both nuclear and fossil-fuel plants." He added that he believes the agreement will hinder development of renewable energy in Sweden and a nuclear phase-out. The agreement is controversial in Finland as well, because of the planned 1,000-MW transmission cable. An application to build the cable is under review by the Finnish Ministry of Trade & Industry. Late last year, Finnish grid company Fingrid said it opposed the cable because the grid cannot take the additional electricity. However, some sources said Fingrid's opposition is at least partly an effort to keep the grid closed to foreign power companies, despite the deregulated Finnish electricity market.
We will see after the elections in automn how politics will develop in Sweden. It is likely that the "Moderaterna", an important and pro-nuclear parti, will gain more power. Importing nuclear energy from Russia is too obviously absurd. It is much less desperate to follow the Finland example: Finland demonstrated that building new nuclear power plants is very advantageous economically.
