Kärnfull Next Files Sweden's First SMR Approval Application in Valdemarsvik

Kärnfull Next has submitted an application to build a power plant based on small modular reactors in the municipality of Valdemarsvik in Östergötland county in southeastern Sweden, the first filed under the country's new Act on Government Approval of Nuclear Facilities. The submission is also the first application for a new nuclear facility on a new Swedish site in more than 50 years.

The application, submitted by project company ReFirm Målma AB, covers a planned SMR campus in Valdemarsvik and was formally delivered to Johan Britz, Minister for Employment and acting Minister for Climate and the Environment. The campus is initially planned to host between four and six small light water reactors, adding between 10 and 15 TWh of electricity generation per year.

"This is a clear step from concept to formal permitting," said Kärnfull Next CEO Christian Sjölander. The Valdemarsvik project would be part of Kärnfull Next's ReFirm South SMR programme, aiming to expand carbon-free and dispatchable energy production across southern Sweden. Sjölander added that Sweden needs new dispatchable, fossil-free power, particularly in the south, and that the application shows real projects are now moving forward.

Kärnfull Next announced it had secured land rights for the Valdemarsvik project in February 2025. The property includes areas that were identified as suitable for nuclear power in studies going back as far as the 1970s.

On March 9, 2026, Studsvik announced the acquisition of Kärnfull Next AB, expanding Studsvik's role from supporting the world's existing nuclear fleet into the development of new nuclear projects. Swedish nuclear technology company Studsvik agreed to acquire Kärnfull Next for €6.5 million (approximately $7.5 million). The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2026. Studsvik called the Valdemarsvik submission "an exciting step toward establishing SMR parks in Sweden," noted Valdemarsvik as the first municipality in the process, and said both companies look forward to submitting further applications during the year. Under the acquisition agreement, the Kärnfull Next founders will join Studsvik's executive team, creating a vertically integrated offering spanning project development, vendor-neutral advisory, fuel and materials testing, mission-critical software, and waste management.

The new legislation introduces an early-stage government approval process designed to improve predictability and accelerate the deployment of new nuclear capacity. That process matters because it comes before the more expensive downstream steps: the government will review the request before it proceeds to Valdemarsvik municipality for approval, with further assessments by the Land and Environment Court and the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority to follow.

The policy backdrop has shifted decisively since 2022. Sweden's incoming centre-right coalition government adopted a positive stance towards nuclear energy in October 2022, and in November 2023 unveiled a roadmap envisaging the construction of new nuclear generating capacity equivalent to at least two large-scale reactors by 2035, with up to 10 large-scale reactors' worth of capacity, potentially including SMRs, coming online by 2045. The Swedish government has also introduced financing mechanisms worth SEK 220 billion (€20.6 billion) to support new nuclear development. In a separate regulatory track, Vattenfall subsidiary Videberg Kraft submitted the first application under Sweden's act on state aid for investments in new nuclear power in December 2025, a different statutory instrument from the government-approval law under which Kärnfull Next filed.

Kärnfull Next has been building toward this moment since 2022. In March 2022 the company signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy on the deployment of the BWRX-300 in Sweden. A feasibility study for siting SMRs at Studsvik's industrial site near Nyköping began in May 2023, with preliminary results suggesting the site has "favourable conditions" for hosting commercial SMRs. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korean construction firm Samsung C&T in December 2024 to advance the deployment of SMRs in Sweden. Kärnfull Next said it plans to submit additional applications for other ReFirm sites later this year.

A final investment decision is not expected before the late 2020s, assuming regulatory approvals proceed as planned. No specific reactor vendor has been confirmed for the Valdemarsvik campus; the company's technology-agnostic approach means that selection, alongside construction financing and grid connection for a site projected to add more annual output than Sweden's largest operating reactor, remains an open question as the permitting process formally begins.