Finnish Nuclear Revival Not Seen in Other Nordics

Finland is pressing ahead with a new atomic power station and Swedes have abandoned some of their deep-seated opposition to nuclear energy but other Scandinavian countries are unlikely to resort to it.

While governments worldwide have increasingly been looking to nuclear energy to reduce carbon emissions, Norway is set to rely on its abundant hydro-electric power and Denmark, a big emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2), is expected to keep burning fossil fuels.
“We, the Nordic energy ministers, time after time come to the conclusion that we have very different energy policies. We haven’t even tried to find a common nuclear energy policy,” Finland’s energy minister, Mauri Pekkarinen, said.

These differences persist despite extensive Nordic cooperation in other areas of energy such as the pan-Nordic power market, Nord Pool, which describes itself as the world’s biggest electricity exchange.

Planet Ark