Swedish parliament to vote on nuclear bills as one
19 March 2010
The Swedish parliament has decided to consider two separate nuclear energy-related bills introduced last month by the government as a single bill, the Stockholm News reported. The first bill would allow the construction of new reactors to replace Sweden's ten existing units, while the second would quadruple the financial liability of nuclear power reactor owners in the event of an accident, from SKr3 billion ($412 million) per incident to SKr12 billion ($1.65 billion). The report said that parliament's decision to combine the bills follows a climate and energy deal made a year ago between the governing Alliance parties: the Moderates, the Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party. However, according to the Stockholm News, there is "major uncertainty" if the combined bill will get a majority vote when parliament votes on it on 17 June. It says that only four dissenting votes in the Alliance are needed to overturn the government proposals and so far three members of the governing parties have said they intend to vote against new reactors, while a fourth is considering voting against it.