Sweden puzzled by drones discovered over 2 nuclear power plants
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Swedish authorities are puzzled by reports that drones were last week seen hovering over two nuclear power plants on the country’s Baltic coast.
The police said on Sunday that preliminary investigations have been initiated, and added that the probes are handled locally by investigators but they are coordinated nationally by the Swedish police’s national operational department. The police have no suspects.
Late on Friday, the police were alerted about the drones but lost control of the unmanned aircraft. Swedish media said that the drones were large enough to withstand the wind that blew over the area.
Hans Liwang, associate professor at the Swedish National Defense College, tells SVT that Sweden is not sufficiently prepared for this type of event.
“We have not really adapted our way of looking at this type of event to today’s reality,” he said. “We still see the world as either at peace or at war.”
Sweden has three nuclear power plants: Forsmarksverket which is located north of Stockholm, Oscarshamn in the southeastern part of the country and Ringhals, the largest of them. The drone reports related to the first two.
In 2019, the Ringhals 2 reactor in southwest Sweden was permanently closed with operators, citing lack of profitability and rising maintenance costs.
In addition, there are two decommissioned nuclear power plants – Barseback, which is located on the narrow waterway between Sweden and Denmark and Agesta, south of the Swedish capital.
