Phasing out or phasing in: Framing the role of nuclear power in the Swedish energy transition

This article examines how members of the Swedish Parliament framed nuclear energy in the 2010 debate on the future of nuclear power in Sweden in order to understand how politicians construct and contextualize their views on the role of nuclear energy in energy transitions. Our findings suggest that four themes could be identified in the debate and that these were formative for politicians in framing nuclear energy. Even though all political actors anticipate an energy transition towards a more sustainable system, different paths to advancing in this process were brought up in the debate, both with and without prolongation of the nuclear energy program. Our analysis suggests that framings of nuclear energy are closely related to the political ideologies of the parties in the Parliament because the two framings of nuclear energy correspond with the division of the Swedish Parliament into two political blocs. However, views on nuclear energy are not inherent to political ideologies but are constructed. This article thus integrates the politics of nuclear energy within the research on energy transitions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.