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Swedish energy giants quarrel over decision to shut nuclear reactors

Xinhua, September 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Swedish power companies are grappling over a plan to shut two of the countries nuclear reactors prematurely, local media reported on Friday.

State-owned power giant Vattenfall wants to close two of the four reactors at the power plant Ringhals by 2020 at the latest but minority stakeholder Eon disagrees.

"From our perspective we believe what we have told the board: that it is too early to determine a changed, definitive lifespan for reactors 1 and 2," Roger Strandahl, a spokesperson for Eon, which holds a 30-percent stake in the plant, told news agency TT.

Ringhals chairman Torbjorn Wahlborg said on Friday the plant had decided to halt ongoing investments in the two reactors by 2017 in order to save roughly 480 million SEK (57 million U.S. dollars).

Majority owner Vattenfall announced in April it would shut the two reactors by 2020 due to sliding electricity prices and higher production costs. Sweden's center-left government recently raised taxes on nuclear power production.

"We understand (the plant's) decision with regard to the market situation, but we think politicians bear a great responsibility for the market's development," said Anna Holmberg, head of the energy trade group SKGS.

SKGS has warned of an electricity shortfall in southern Sweden when Ringhals pulls the plug on two of its four reactors.

Sweden currently has 10 nuclear reactors spread over three power plants, two of which Vattenfall controls through majority stakes. The state-owned giant has come under pressure from environmental groups to sell off its brown-coal assets in Germany. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.46 SEK) Endit