Swedish state-owned energy company Vattenfall has signed an agreement with the Estonian nuclear energy start-up company Fermi Energia in order to become a minority shareholder of the company with a seed investment of EUR1 million (USD1.2 million). Fermi Energia is studying the deployment of small modular reactors in Estonia.

Ringhals AB and Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB each issued an Urgent Market Message to the Nord Pool power exchange yesterday morning about the potential risk of Ringhals units 3 and 4 and Forsmark units 1, 2 and 3 being unable to restart following scheduled outages - in 2024 (F2), 2025 (R3-4, F3), and 2028 (F1) - because of a lack of storage space for used nuclear fuel.

Once a poster child for environmentalism, Sweden has now embarked on a retroactive and harmful journey, write Sama Bilbao y Léon, director general, and John Lindberg, public affairs manager, at World Nuclear Association. The following is a translation from Swedish of their article Sverige bör ompröva sin kärnkraftspolitik published by Dagens Industri on 18 February.

Uniper Sweden, LeadCold and the Royal Institute of Technology are collaborating to explore the possibility of constructing a demonstration LeadCold SEALER lead-cooled small modular reactor at Sweden's Oskarshamn plant site by 2030. The partners have also applied for funding towards building a non-nuclear prototype at Oskarshamn for testing and verifying materials and technology.

A virtual meeting was held on 13-14 January to launch the new Studsvik Material Integrity Life Extension project. The five-year project, supported by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, aims to investigate and improve the understanding of materials ageing and degradation in metallic components during the operation of a nuclear power plant.

Sweden's Studsvik has signed a contract worth SEK134 million (USD16 million) with Norway's Institute for Energy Technology for loading equipment, transport, handling equipment, examination and pre-treatment of nuclear fuel from the JEEP I research reactor at Kjeller. The fuel is currently held in an ageing storage facility at the site which does not meet current requirements.

Ringhals 1 today became the fourth reactor to close in Sweden in the last seven years. The unit, on the west coast of the country, was permanently disconnected from the national grid after 44 years of operation, according to data from its operator, Ringhals AB, which is owned by Vattenfall (70.4%) and Sydkraft Nuclear Power (29.6%).

Westinghouse will segment the reactor at the Ågesta nuclear power plant near Stockholm, Sweden, under a contract signed with Vattenfall. The country's first commercial power reactor - it operated between 1964 and 1974 - the R3 heavy water reactor supplied electricity and district heating to the Stockholm suburb of Farsta.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has today approved the independent core cooling systems implemented by the operators of the country's nuclear power plants. The operators were required to introduce such systems following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi. The systems were to be in place by the end of this year in order for the reactors to continue operating.

Vattenfall yesterday celebrated the 40th anniversary of the start of commercial operation of unit 1 at the Forsmark nuclear power plant. The Swedish utility is marking the occasion with an exhibition of photographs from the unit's construction period and its first year of operation.

Swedish utility Vattenfall and Estonia's Fermi Energia have signed a Letter-of-Intent to further expand their cooperation on small modular reactors (SMRs). For the past year Vattenfall has participated in a feasibility study by Fermi Energia to explore the possibilities for the deployment of such reactors in Estonia.

A German court has ruled in favour of Vattenfall in its case against the government relating to the nuclear power plants Brunsbüttel, Krümmel and Mülheim-Kärlich in northern Germany. The Swedish utility had argued that the conditions for compensation payments to nuclear power producers impacted by the country's nuclear phaseout policy, the Energiewende, were not clearly regulated and that previous amendments to the law could lead to a reduction of claims.