Estonia legalizes nuclear power in 63-10 vote

In February 2025, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania did something planned for over a decade: they disconnected from the Russian-controlled BRELL electricity system and synchronised with continental Europe's grid (ENTSO-E, Kleinman Center). That was the declaration of independence. Now they need the energy system to back it up.

On 17 June 2026, Estonia's parliament voted 63 to 10 to pass the Nuclear Energy and Safety Act, creating a legal basis for peaceful nuclear energy for the first time in the country's history (Riigikogu). The law does not approve a reactor, choose a site or commit the state to build anything. It creates the rulebook: who regulates, how permits work, who pays for waste. Think of it as laying down traffic rules before any cars are on the road.

From cutting a cord to filling the gap

An electricity grid is not a warehouse. Supply and demand must match almost instantly, or the system destabilises. Wind and solar produce power cheaply but on nature's schedule, not yours. Batteries store energy for hours, rarely for weeks. Interconnectors let you borrow from neighbours, unless they're short too.

After the BRELL exit, the Baltics no longer depend on Moscow for frequency control, the constant, precise balancing that keeps lights steady. They also lost something physical: the sheer spinning mass of Russia's enormous generator fleet, which acted like a flywheel absorbing sudden swings in supply and demand. That responsibility now falls entirely on Baltic grids and their European partners. Lithuanian market data already shows the tension: in one recent week, local generation fell while demand rose, and imports jumped to compensate (LRT). Cross-border cables help, but they have capacity limits, and reserving bandwidth for grid stability can restrict cheaper power flowing between countries.

Nuclear fits into this picture as "firm" low-carbon power: it runs regardless of weather and, through its own large spinning turbines, restores exactly the kind of physical inertia the Baltics gave up when they left BRELL. It does not replace the need for cables, batteries or demand management. It changes the mix of reliable supply within the system.

A roadmap with many checkpoints

Estonia's law establishes a regulator inside the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA), due to start operations on 1 January 2027. The licensing process is deliberately staged: preliminary assessment, construction licence, testing, operation, decommissioning (Riigikogu). Parliament added an extra lock: lawmakers themselves must approve any construction decision, alongside the regulator and government.

The company hoping to use this framework is Fermi Energia. It proposes two GE Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors, a design already under construction at Ontario's Darlington site and in US regulatory review, making it more than a paper concept (ANS). The target is first power by 2036 (ERR).

The price tag for roughly 600 MW of capacity: an estimated €4.5 billion. The Ministry of Climate says dozens of implementing regulations are still needed. The government's current position is that the state will not finance a nuclear plant, while Fermi argues the project needs a state-backed price-guarantee mechanism. That financing question is likely the real gate. A law can make a project permissible; a bankable revenue model decides whether investors commit billions.

The neighbours' answer sheet

Estonia is not working this problem alone. Sweden's Riksdag approved expanded nuclear siting on 15 June 2026, and Vattenfall selected Rolls-Royce SMR technology for three units near Ringhals (Riksdag, Rolls-Royce). Even so, Vattenfall's CEO placed those reactors around 2040 (SVT). Latvia is investing in interconnectors and battery storage rather than nuclear (TEGOS Legal). Lithuania carries the cautionary memory: dismantling its Soviet-era Ignalina reactors will run until 2049, with spent fuel requiring storage for 50 years and a geological repository needed by 2090 (LRT English).

The EU's own framework has shifted. Nuclear now qualifies under the taxonomy's climate rules and the Net-Zero Industry Act treats SMRs as strategic technology (EUR-Lex, World Nuclear News). That opens doors for state support, but it does not shorten the decade-long path from law to electricity.

Estonia has approved the road, not the vehicle. The real test of Baltic energy sovereignty will play out over the 2030s and 2040s: regulators staffed, cables laid, contracts signed and reactors that actually produce power. Nuclear could become part of that system. Whether it does depends on answers no law alone can provide: who pays, who builds, and whether Europe can turn small modular reactors from promising prototypes into proven infrastructure.