Blykalla applies to build Swedish SMR plant

Blykalla said it chose Norrsundet in the municipality of Gävle as the location for its nuclear facility due to its strategic location between two key bidding zones, an existing port, key infrastructure, and industrial heritage – reducing construction complexity while addressing regional power shortages with predictable baseload power. The proposed plant will have a total generating capacity of 330 MWe.

"This application is a historic first for Sweden," said Blykalla CEO Jacob Stedman. "We're not just planning an advanced reactor park - we're building Sweden’s energy future and putting the country at the forefront of the global nuclear power renaissance. Building new energy infrastructure is critical, and the energy systems of the future need to be predictable, reliable and fossil-free. As AI and electrification grow worldwide, we need to accelerate the deployment of predictable, clean baseload power. That's exactly what Blykalla's technology does, and we are uniquely positioned to meet this moment."

The Ministry of Climate and Enterprise said the government will now assess whether the application meets the requirements, whether the proposed activity is justified and whether there are conditions for preparedness and for handling the nuclear material being handled and the nuclear waste that is generated. The government review of the application launches a comprehensive approval process involving multiple agencies, including the Land and Environmental Court and Swedish Radiation Safety Authority. The government will then produce a facility plan to guide decisions on how land and water areas will be used.

The ministry noted the municipality of Gävle needs to approve both the plan and the application before the government can make a decision to approve a nuclear facility. "The approval does not replace the permit review according to the Environmental Code and the Nuclear Activities Act," it said. "However, the government's approval replaces the permissibility review that the government must otherwise carry out according to Chapter 17 of the Environmental Code."

_{Rendering of the SEALER building in Norrsundet (Image: Blykalla)}

Blykalla - formerly called LeadCold - is a spin-off from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where lead-cooled reactor systems have been under development since 1996. The company - founded in 2013 as a joint stock company - is developing the SEALER (Swedish Advanced Lead Reactor). A demonstration SEALER (SEALER-D) is planned to have a thermal output of 80 MW.

Subject to the necessary permits and final investment decisions, the commercial-scale Norrsundet facility could become operational in the first half of the 2030s.

In February, the Swedish government announced several proposed measures to make it easier to establish new nuclear power in the country. ​The new legislation introduces an early-stage government approval process designed to improve predictability and accelerate the deployment of new nuclear capacity. The following month, Kärnfull Next submitted an application to build a power plant based on small modular reactors (SMRs) in the municipality of Valdemarsvik in Östergötland county in southeastern Sweden, becoming the first application under the country's new Act on Government Approval of Nuclear Facilities. It marked the first application for the establishment of new nuclear power in Sweden 50 years.

"New nuclear power is an important piece of the puzzle for Sweden's energy independence," said Acting Minister of Climate and Environment Johan Britz. "The concern we are now seeing in the world clearly shows how vulnerable we are becoming from our dependence on fossil fuels – and how crucial it is to expand fossil-free electricity production. Thanks to our new permit review, more actors now dare to invest in nuclear power."

In October 2022, Sweden's incoming centre-right coalition government adopted a positive stance towards nuclear energy. In November 2023, it unveiled a roadmap which envisages the construction of new nuclear generating capacity equivalent to at least two large-scale reactors by 2035, with the equivalent capacity of up to 10 new large-scale reactors (which may include small modular reactors) coming online by 2045. A new act on state aid entered into force on 1 August 2025, since when interested companies have been able to apply for the aid.

The Swedish government received the first such application in December to support proposals for either five GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 reactors or three Rolls-Royce SMRs to provide about 1500 MW capacity at Ringhals on the Värö Peninsula. The application came from Videberg Kraft AB, a project company owned by Vattenfall AB and backed by a series of industrial firms via the Industrikraft i Sverige AB consortium.