A surprising revival in previously reviled nuclear power

IN WHAT may be his boldest move so far, Sweden’s Fredrik Reinfeldt has shredded a central part of the election manifesto on which his centre-right government fought the election in 2006. The four parties in his coalition have long been split over nuclear power. So they agreed in the manifesto to keep all matters atomic off the agenda until their term expired in 2010. But a combination of tight climate-change targets, energy-security worries and a wobbly economy has now caused a rethink. On February 5th Mr Reinfeldt unveiled a plan to reverse Sweden’s 30-year ban on building new nuclear capacity.

The new pro-nuclear policy is echoed in some of Sweden’s neighbours. On the very day that Mr Reinfeldt announced his proposals Fortum, a Finnish energy group, lodged an application to build a new nuclear plant. This would be the country’s sixth. Four are in operation and a fifth (the world’s largest) is under construction at Olkiluoto. On the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, Poland plans two nuclear-power stations to reduce its dependence on coal. The Poles are also talking to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia about a joint consortium to build a replacement for Lithuania’s outdated Ignalina nuclear-power complex. Only the Danes and, to a lesser extent, the Germans are still anti-nuclear. ...