Advertisement

Volvo in nuclear energy retreat

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Volvo in nuclear energy retreat

Truck maker Volvo has announced that it will cease buying Swedish nuclear power at the end of this year. Volvo has signed a deal with Vattenfall ensuring that it does not receive energy from nuclear power sources, which it said did not sit well with the company's environmental goals.

Advertisement

"We place nuclear energy far down the scale. It's not sustainable from a number of aspects," Volvo's environmental chief Inge Horkeby told Dagens Nyheter.

"The raw materials used to produce nuclear energy are a finite resource and the waste management problem has not been solved," she added.

While agreeing that Volvo should make use of renewable energy sources, CEO Leif Johansson was careful to note that the company was not opposed to Swedish nuclear energy.

"In my view, Sweden should really consider using new technology for nuclear power," he told Dagens Nyheter.

Trade Union IF Metall was unimpressed by Volvo Trucks' anti-nuclear stance.

"It sounds like Volvo is using environmental profiling as a PR stunt," spokesman Per Öhman told Dagens Nyheter.

Volvo has the stated aim of fuelling all its plants worldwide using renewable energy sources. The company has already built three farms at its Belgian plant in Gent, with a further wind farm in the pipeline for the Tuve plant outside Gothenburg.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also