The Tidö parties are adding a rapid investigation to make...

The Tidö parties are adding a rapid investigation to make uranium mining permitted again in Sweden.

Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) calls the ban a stopgap.It is not wise that we have to handle uranium as waste, she says.Since 2018, it has been prohibited to mine uranium in Sweden. The Tidö parties want to change that. An investigation is now therefore being added, which should be completed already on May 15 this year.

It is not wise that we have to handle uranium as waste. It is costly and a stumbling block for the potential that Swedish deposits have, says Romina Pourmokhtari.Sweden has over a quarter of Europe's known uranium deposits. Even so, there has been no uranium mine since the 1960s. Mainly because it has not been considered profitable enough, but also because previous attempts have met with strong local protests.

."Mines Decisive"When the government and SD now want to lift the uranium ban, Romina Pourmokhtari does not primarily see new pure uranium mines in front of her, although she does not completely rule it out.- I think there are municipalities in Sweden that see the benefits. Mines in particular may not be such a pleasant part of the climate change, but an absolutely crucial one. If we have no mines, we have no electric cars, no wind turbines and no nuclear power reactors, she says.According to Pourmokhtari, the most important effect of a lifted uranium mining ban is above all that the heavy metal will be able to be used as a residual product from other, already existing, mining operations.According to the minister, it would also make it more attractive to look for other minerals and metals needed for the green transition.- You can choose to either pump up oil and import it, or to change. And for the transition, Sweden needs to offer Europe the metals and minerals we have in order to increase the degree of self-sufficiency, she says.Romina Pourmokhtari says that the risk is that otherwise we end up completely in the hands of dictatorships to supply us with critical substances."Real-life situation"When it comes to uranium in particular, however, Sweden imports most of it from unproblematic countries such as Canada and Australia. Regardless, the residual products from existing Swedish mines will hardly cover that need.But Romina Pourmokhtari says that every small step is worth something.- If you are to be honest and refuse to have uranium mines, then you also have to say: Here is my energy system that will do without the uranium mines. Either the lights, the factories or the Swedish economy go out, or we use the uranium we find. It is such a sharp situation we are in.

From MSM (have format problems)