Sweden puzzled by drones spotted over 2 nuclear power plants

PTI, Jan 17, 2022, 3:46 PM IST

FILE PHOTO: General view of nuclear power plant in Forsmark (Image courtesy: Reuters/TT News Agency)

Copenhagen: Swedish authorities are puzzled by reports that drones last week were seen hovering over two nuclear power plants on the country’s Baltic Sea coast.

Police said Sunday that preliminary investigations have been launched, adding the probes are being handled locally by investigators but they are coordinated nationally by the Swedish police’s national operational department. Police have no suspects.

Late Friday, police were alerted about the drones but lost track of the unmanned aircraft. Swedish media said the drones were large enough to withstand the wind that was blowing over the area.

Hans Liwang, an associate professor with the Swedish National Defense College, told Swedish broadcaster 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 think of the world as either at peace or at war.” Sweden has three nuclear power stations: the Forsmark plant which sits 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 southwestern Sweden was permanently shut down with operators citing a lack of profitability and rising maintenance costs.

On top of that, there are two decommissioned nuclear power facilities — Barseback, which sits on the narrow waterway between Sweden and Denmark and Agesta, south of the Swedish capital. (AP)