Page 572 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

CENTRAL CASE STUDY

Sweden’s Search for

Alternative Energy

SWEDEN

RUSSIA
Chernobyl “Nowhere has the public debate
EUROPE
over nuclear power plants been
UKRAINE more severely contested than
Fukushima Sweden.”
JAPAN —Writer and analyst Michael Valenti

“If [Sweden] phases out nuclear
power, then it will be virtually
impossible for the country to keep
its climate-change commitments.”

— Yale University economist William
Nordhaus

Flashback to 1986: On the morning of April 28, workers at But trying to phase out nuclear power proved difficult.
a nuclear power plant in Sweden detected unusually high Aware of the environmental impacts of fossil fuels, Sweden’s
radiation levels. The increased radioactivity was not coming government and citizens did not want to increase their use of
from within the plant, but had spread through the atmosphere coal, oil, and gas. Sweden has been one of the few nations to
from the direction of the Soviet Union. They had discovered decrease use of fossil fuels since the 1970s. But it did so largely
the outside world’s first evidence of the disaster at Chernobyl, by replacing them with nuclear power. As 2010 drew nearer,
more than 1200 km (750 mi) away in what is now the nation of Sweden was still relying on 10 nuclear reactors for over 30% of
Ukraine. Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor had exploded two days its energy supply and over 40% of its electricity. If nuclear plants
earlier, but the Soviet government had not yet admitted it. were to be shut down as planned, then the nation would need to
Fast-forward to 2011: On March 11, seismometers in boost its investment in alternative energy sources dramatically.
Sweden and throughout the world recorded vibrations from Sweden, therefore, promoted research and development
the shaking of the massive Tohoku Earthquake off the coast of renewable energy sources. Hydroelectric power was already
of Japan. Soon thereafter, a tsunami inundated the Japanese supplying most of the rest of the nation’s electricity and could
coast, destroying entire towns, killing 20,000 people, and disa- not be expanded much more. Instead, the government hoped
bling nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. that energy from biomass sources and wind power could fill
For the next several weeks, the world would stand on edge as the gap. Sweden boosted wind and bioenergy by applying a
Japanese authorities made frantic efforts to control the leakage carbon tax (p. 531) to fossil fuels and by subsidizing renew- CHAPTER 20 • CONVENTI ON AL ENERGY ALTERN ATIVES
of deadly radiation and avert further catastrophe. able energy through a certificate program in which producers
The events at both Chernobyl and Fukushima had broad and users of fossil-fuel electricity were mandated to buy cer-
and long-lasting repercussions. Each altered the course of the tificates from producers and users of renewable electricity. In
world’s use of nuclear energy, one of our main alternatives to these ways the government used market forces to make fossil
fossil fuels. People in Ukraine and Japan will continue to strug- fuels more expensive and renewable energy more affordable.
gle with the legacies of these events for years to come, but the Sweden soon made itself an international leader in renew-
global debate over nuclear power affects all of us. able energy alternatives, and today gets nearly half its energy
In Sweden in the days after Chernobyl, low levels of radio- from renewable sources. Still, renewables were taking longer
active fallout rained down on the countryside, contaminating to develop than hoped, so policymakers repeatedly post-
crops and cows’ milk. For many Swedes, this confirmed the poned the nuclear phaseout. Then in 2009, the government
decision they had made collectively six years earlier, in a 1980 announced that it was reversing its policy and would not phase
referendum, to phase out their country’s nuclear power pro- out nuclear power after all. Instead, new power plants would
gram, shutting down all nuclear plants by the year 2010. be built as existing ones needed replacing. 571

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