In Oskarshamn, on the southeast coast of Sweden, construction has started on the country’s first modern small nuclear power plant. Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, Ebba Bush, took the symbolic first sod on 3 February 2025.
Located in the vicinity of one of Sweden’s operational full-size nuclear reactors, the new small nuclear reactor (SMR) will be cooled by liquid lead. Supported by EUR 8.7 million from the Swedish Energy Authority, the project is led by Blykalla (translates as Lead source) in cooperation with German energy company Uniper, engineering company ABB and the Royal Technical Polytechnic (KTH).
The SMR is planned to go live in 2026, and is meant as an innovative test case to initiate a new era of nuclear power in Sweden, sanctioned by the Swedish government.
Sweden: three locations with operational nuclear reactors
Sweden currently has three locations with operational traditional nuclear power sites: in Forsmark near Uppsala, in Ringhals in Göteborg and in Oskarshamn. In the latter, only one of three built boiling water reactors is still operational. Oskarshamn 3 (O3) produces about 10% of the Swedish energy supply – equalling about half a million homes, with an output of about 1,450 megawatts. O1 and O2 were closed down in 2015 and will be decommissioned.
More SMRs on more locations in Sweden
At Forsmark, all three boiling water nuclear reactors are still operational, in Ringhals only two of the original four. Since 2024, the Swedish government has fully relaunched its commitment to increase the country’s nuclear power production and has cancelled the original cap of max. 10 reactors. In stead, the Swedish government hopes that small nuclear reactors like the one of Blykalla will make nuclear power safer, and that the SMRs will be constructed at more locations than the current three sites across the country.
This month’s start of the Blykalla SMR is the first time in 40 years that a new nuclear reactor is being constructed in Sweden. | © 2025 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured image: the Blykalla reactor (Press image: ABB)