Lund Municipality in Rogaland enters into partnership with Norsk Kjernekraft – NRK Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio

– The nuclear power plant is just a stamp on the size of the wind farms, Lund Mayor Gro Helleland tells NRK.

Today, Norway has no nuclear power plants in operation, but if Hilleland is to be believed, Lund Municipality needs to change that.

The municipality has just signed an agreement with the energy company Norsk Kjernekraft AS to build a nuclear power plant in the municipality.

“It’s about saving as much of nature as possible,” says Helleland. “We want more stable energy, to complement wind power and everything else.”

She believes that in a short time we could see nuclear power on the Norwegian continental shelf.

– With political will, there is talk of a ten-year period before you start to see something. And this could happen, without us guaranteeing anything.

But it shows that the will is there.

• Did you know that nuclear power has recently become more popular than hydropower? It wasn’t always this way, and we don’t need to go back further than 2021 when nuclear power was a controversial topic.

– Strong advertising campaign

According to a survey by Ipsos, nuclear power is also the most popular energy source among most people.

But the Ipsos survey is the result of a “strong advertising campaign” by several actors, believes the leader of the Nature Conservation Society, Truls Gullussen.

“It is no wonder that some people and some municipalities believe the rhetoric that it is easy to get nuclear power plants,” he says.

Environmental organizations Greenpeace Norway and the Nature Conservation Society believe that we do not know enough information, and consider it impossible to build a nuclear power plant at such an early date.

– The challenges of building and operating nuclear power are much greater in Norway, which has almost no experience in it, than Norsk Kerncraft gives the impression, says Goluzen.

Greenpeace leader Freud Pleim agrees with Golosin.

– The Department of Energy Engineering and other professional circles consider nuclear energy to be present in Norway. to He says 2040 is completely unrealistic.

Does not solve the climate crisis

According to Bleim, it is good that nuclear power advocates are researching the technology. But he notes that parliament has set a target of cutting emissions by 55 percent by 2030.

He worries that interest in nuclear power will overshadow the goal of reducing emissions.

“We run the risk that politicians will start investing in nuclear power, which is not going to be a solution until the future,” says Plame, “instead of investing in things we do today that we know work.”

State Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Astrid Bergmoll (Ap), told NRK that it cannot be ruled out that new nuclear energy technology could also be interesting for Norway in the long term.

– So it is understandable that municipalities and companies, like Lund in this case, should get more information on this topic. He says it is important to keep track of technological developments.

She points out that nuclear energy is a difficult and complex energy source and raises a number of issues that currently have no answers.

Therefore, it requires comprehensive work to obtain the required updated knowledge base.

– She says the government has now set up a public committee that will review and broadly evaluate various aspects of the possible future of nuclear energy in Norway.

– ambitious

Lund Mayor Gro Helleland acknowledges that the project is ambitious, but points out that they have spoken to professionals who say it is possible.

– We fully understand that it is ambitious, but since when have we not been able to get the expertise we need.

“This is not something we are putting our finger in the air about. We have spoken to people of professional standing,” the mayor explains.

Lund Municipality is a municipality that already had many wind farms. But now they think that one should be more advanced in the field of nuclear energy.

– We believe in Norwegian nuclear energy. It is important that we are first, because we need to put in place a set of regulations, and we have to “move forward”. We know and understand that this is not a “quick fix”.