A spokesman for Sweden's nuclear power regulator Stralsakerhetsmyndigheten, known as SSM, said the agency had stopped processing plans for new nuclear power plants in the country to comply with statements from the new minority-run government, which took over after September's elections.
State-run utility company Vattenfall also said it was putting plans for new nuclear power plants on hold.
“Both SSM and Vattenfall have stopped working on the request (for a new plant),” said SSM spokesman David Persson in response to an inquiry from Recharge. In a similar statement, Vattenfall said, “in line with our government's wish regarding our analysis work about the preconditions for potential replacement nuclear reactors … Vattenfall has decided to put the … work on hold and no new initiatives will be taken,” the state-run utility said, referring to post-Fukushima Daiichi safety standards.
Elections in September did not produce a clear winner, which allowed for a coalition of Social Democrats and Greens to form a new government. One goal of the new government is to phase out nuclear power in Sweden.
It may take years for Sweden to reach a formal energy policy it can commit to, but for now the measurable impact is derailment of a nuclear plant project for Ringhals, Sweden, that has been under review since its application was received in 2012.
Sveriges Radio reported that about 40 employees at Vattenfall, who had been working on the Ringhals plant, had been reassigned to other tasks.
Major shifts in Europe since the March 2011 disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power station include Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power and a plan, not yet formally approved, for France to reduce its dependence on nuclear power from 74 percent to 50 percent.