Sweden moves to lift uranium mining ban

The Swedish Minister for Climate and Environment has decided on an investigation to abolish the ban on uranium extraction

There is currently no uranium mining in Sweden, which has six nuclear power reactors providing about one-third of its electricity. Sweden imports most of its nuclear fuel, including all enrichment services.

Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari has decided that a so-called letter investigation will be carried out at the Ministry of Climate and Business to analyze and submit the proposals needed to enable the extraction of uranium in Sweden again.

- If the EU is to become the first climate-neutral continent, access to sustainable metals and minerals must be ensured. We need to use the uranium we have, instead of sorting it out and considering it as waste, as now - due to the current ban on uranium mining - says Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari.

The investigator is now tasked with investigating which rule changes are needed to enable and clarify the conditions for uranium extraction. In addition, the investigator must analyze whether the requirement for the government's admissibility review should be limited to cover uranium mining only when it is a nuclear activity.

The purpose of the investigation is to remove a ban that is not needed. Extraction of uranium must be handled in the same way as extraction of other metals, where the environmental assessment determines the conditions under which it can be permitted.

Uranium often occurs together with other metals and today must be sorted out and handled as waste. 

More than a quarter of Europe's known resources of uranium are found in Sweden's bedrock. Today, it is not possible to grant either an exploration permit, a processing concession or an environmental permit regarding uranium. Uranium mining must in future be tested according to relevant environmental legislation, which means that the current ban on uranium mining must be removed.

The assignment must be reported by 15 May 2024 at the latest.

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