Sweden and weapons of mass destruction

During the 20th century Sweden had programs for both Nuclear and Chemical weapons. During the first decades of the Cold War a nuclear weapon program was active. No weapon was ever deployed and in the 1960s the political landscape and budgetary problems questioned the use of these weapons and by the mid 1970s all plans for weapons of mass destruction had been scrapped.

Nuclear weapons

Sweden's nuclear weapon program was started after World War II and the American nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the early years after the war Sweden made a decision to become a neutral power that could defend itself militarily against any invading power. The biggest threats to Sweden were Soviet nuclear capabilities and in the late 1940s and 1950s much research was made into nuclear weapons.

In 1948 the first solid plans on how to create an atomic weapon was presented to the FOI ("Totalförsvarets Forskningsinstitut", Swedish Defence Research Agency). Plans were established to run a civilian nuclear power program in parallel, using domestic uranium resources as nuclear fuel. The Ågesta and Marviken reactors were supposed to produce plutonium for the weapons, while also producing energy. The Saab 36 was a planned attack aircraft that would be able to deliver nuclear weapons, and later on, submarines and aircraft like the Lansen and ultimately Viggen were considered as means of delivery as well.

All of the nuclear development activities took place at...
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