Swedish energy company Vattenfall has hired Vinci subsidiary Nuvia to decommission two reactors at its Ringhals nuclear power plant.

Nuvia will take down unit 1, a boiling water reactor shut down in 2020, and unit 2, a pressurised water reactor shut down the year before.

Both were operating at a loss.

Vinci said the project will last six years, from 2025 to 2031 but did not disclose the value of the contract.

During that time, up to 400 people will work to process some 30,000 tonnes of materials.

Nuvia will manage the design, equipment supply, and on-site operations. It will be supported by its sister company, Hebetec, which will handle the heavy lifting operations.

Ringhals still has two pressurised water reactors in operation, and these supply about 12% of the country’s electricity.

Sweden has been ambivalent about nuclear energy in the past but last November the government announced plans to build two large nuclear reactors by 2035 and 10 others by 2045, some of which may be of the small modular type.