Vattenfall, the Swedish power company, said On Tuesday that it was considering building at least two new small nuclear reactors to cope with an expected increase in power consumption in the coming decades.
Sweden's original goal was to phase out nuclear power - which currently meets about 40 per cent of its needs - by 2010. But in 2009, lawmakers decided to allow existing reactors to be replaced with new ones, and opinion polls show a majority of Swedes agree with the policy.
Vattenfall says it is launching a pilot study on the conditions for building at least two small modular reactors near Sweden's largest Ringhals power station. Located about 65km (40 miles) south of Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, it has so far generated 15-20% of the country's electricity.
The state-owned energy group also said in a statement that it was "actively studying how different fossil free energy sources can meet the growing demand for electricity". Many European countries are scrambling to find alternative ways of generating electricity as costs rise due to the russian-Ukrainian situation, in an effort to wean the continent off Russian fossil fuels and the incentive to invest in green energy.
Vattenfall chief Executive Anna Borg stressed that "no investment decision has been made".
Borg said: "Southern Sweden needs more power generation, which is why the pilot study focused on the conditions for building SMR... Mainly near Ringhals nuclear power station.
If it turns out to be profitable and all the conditions for future investment decisions are met, including new rules for nuclear power, she said it should be possible to have the first new reactor operational by the early 2030s.
Sweden, a country of about 10 million people, has a total of six active reactors spread across three plants: three in Forsmark, north of Stockholm, one in Oskarn, in the southeast, and two in Ringhals.