Norwegian city wants to build nuclear power 15 kilometers from Sweden
A forest party just north of the city where King Karl XII was shot 306 years ago, between the Halden Vault and County Road towards the national border and Nössemark in Dalsland, is the intended place.
An option agreement is written with the landowner that the company Halden Kjerkraft A/S may use the area – if the Norwegian government and parliament decide.
– The support among the inhabitants is surprisingly large, there has been very little controversy when we had meetings with the public. Now we are waiting for the national discussion, says Fredrik Holm, chairman of Halden Municipality.
Håvard Kristiansen, The CEO of the project company where the municipality and the Østfold Energy Company region are co -owners, have to fast with the investigations.
– 60 of Norway’s 350 municipalities has reported interest To establish nuclear power and the goal is for ten projects to be there before the election to the Storting this fall, he says.
– We see Halden as a strong alternative, although this is like a marathon where we only got to the first kilometer.
Municipal Chairman Fredrik Holm believes that the now closed research reactor that opened in Halden in 1958 is an important reason for the local support.
– It is obvious. Here is a kind of social acceptance. When the big thing says yes, we should be as far ahead as we can.
For it is obvious On the country, which until recently had a clear political distance against introducing nuclear power into the energy mix where hydropower is strongly dominant.
The Labor Party, which constitutes government, changed at a board meeting a few weeks ago and opened to nuclear power in the proposal for a new party program. It will be determined during the congress in Oslo April 3-5.
– We are open and curious about if and in that case how nuclear power can get a place in the Norwegian energy system in the future, says the Minister of Labor and Deputy Party President Tonje Brenna to NRK.
Thus, it seems to find a majority in the Storting for nuclear power as possible a new type of energy. The Progress Party, Høyre, the Senter Party and the Christian People’s Party have also said to want to investigate the matter.
A State Committee shall submit a report by April 1 next year to the government on the possibilities of establishing nuclear power.
– The closer to a decision we come, the more counter -votes will be heard, the chairman of the committee has Kristin Halvorsen said.
Skeptics are already heard. As Naturalvernforbundet who says that nuclear power « should be valued as a last resort to reach full phase of fossil fuels ». And experts at the Norwegian Water and Energy Agency came last fall with calculations that nuclear power would be four times more expensive than wind power on land.
It has the company Norwegian Kjernekraft met With the fact that it is now very difficult to get permits for wind power on land and that less so-called SMR core reactors are 50 times more cost-effective than sea-based wind power.
In that matter they get Support by the Municipal Chairman of Halden Fredrik Holm:
– Wind power on land is completely dead, it encounters tremendous resistance and no parks are relevant in the sea in our region. That being said, it is difficult to judge how nuclear power is economically standing,
The plans that are developed in Halden, three miles from Strömstad, are dealing here and now about up to four SMR reactors that could generate 10 terawatt hours electricity per year, enough for one million households.
– The electricity deficit with us here in Østfold is as large as that as the Västra Götaland region in Sweden is talking about, says Fredrik Holm.
Speaking of the Swedes, what reactions do you meet from there about your nuclear ambitions?
– So far no direct signals, but I know that you follow us with interest. We are keen to inform the Swedes.
When DN speaks to CEO: You Halden project Håvard Kristiansen, he says he writes on a proposal for an investigation program to the Ministry of Energy. But financing? Nor is the question simple in a country with huge oil money, he admits.
– But I would say that the model discussed in Sweden seems interesting. If the state were to guarantee 80 öre per kilowatt, it would be significantly lower than for sea wind power.
He also mentions the model that Norway introduced a century ago to maintain control of hydropower within the country, The so -called Hjemfallsrett.
– Then a municipality or the state would take over the ownership of nuclear power after, say, 40 years, and where the state grants the industry cheap loans.
How likely is it that you build nuclear power in Halden?
– Oh, it is far ahead and we have uncertainties about costs, technology and local conditions. But at best we get a license in the early 1930s and will be ready by 2040.
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