Sweden plans to phase out nuclear power, which still accounts for nearly half of its energy supply, over the next 30 to 40 years.

The country voted in a non-binding referendum in 1980 to phase out Sweden's 12 nuclear reactors by 2010, but that target was abandoned in 1997 after officials acknowledged that there would not be sufficient alternative energy sources to replace the nuclear output.

The first reactor at Barsebaeck was shut down in 1999 and the second was due for closure in 2003, but the government delayed the shutdown while it looked for alternative energy sources.

According to the Sifo poll of 1,000 Swedes conducted for Swedish public television in mid-October -- only a few days after the government announced that it would shut down the second Barsebaeck reactor in 2005 -- 80 percent of the population is now in favor of either maintaining the country's nuclear facilities or expanding them.

Sixty-four percent of those polled said they were opposed to dismantling the remaining nuclear reactors, up from the 55 percent who said they were opposed to the phase-out in a similar poll in January 2003, while 16 percent said they were in favor of building more nuclear reactors in Sweden.

Only 16 percent of those questioned said they wanted the nuclear plants to be dismantled.

The pro-nuclear sentiment in Sweden is thought to be linked to worries that ridding the country of nuclear power would further boost sky-rocketing electricity prices, which have risen by 50 percent on average since the deregulation of its energy market eight years ago.

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