Sweden and weapons of mass destruction During the mid 20th century , Sweden had programmes for both nuclear and chemical weapons . During the first decades of the Cold War , a nuclear weapon programme was active . No weapon was ever deployed . In the 1960s , the political landscape and budgetary problems hindered 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 programme 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 FOA ( " Försvarets forskningsanstalt " , Swedish Defence Research Agency ) . Plans were established to run a civilian nuclear power programme 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 , submarine s and aircraft , like the Lansen and ultimately Viggen , were considered as a means of delivery as well . All of the nuclear development activities took place at the FOA . The plan was to produce 100 warhead s in a timespan of ten years . During the 1960s , it was still not clear if Sweden should develop a nuclear weapon capacity . By the end of the 1960s , the Swedish government , because of military budget constraints , had to choose between a nuclear weapon or a new fighter aircraft ( the Saab 37 Viggen ) . The choice fell with the new fighter . All the plans for a Swedish nuclear weapon were scrapped by 1968 , when Sweden signed the Nuclear Non - Proliferation Treaty . In 1972 , the last remnants of a plan for nuclear weapons was discontinued when the FoA stopped their experiments with plutonium . Sweden did , however , continue with civilian nuclear power and , as of 2012 , Sweden had 10 active nuclear reactors . In March 2012 , Sweden exported of plutonium and approximately of natural and depleted uranium to the United States under framework of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative . Chemical weapons . After World War I , Sweden started research on chemical weapons . In the 1930s , Sweden ' s first chemical weapon programme was born when developing and equipment research for sulfur mustards ( mustard gas ) was started . In 1940 , work on the gas was temporarily halted , but , by the end of World War II , new programmes were soon a priority for the Swedish military . Programmes for both sulfur mustards and sarin gas were initiated . In the 1960s , the development of chemical weapons was highly criticised , and , in 1970 , the Swedish government stated that it would not develop or produce any more chemical weapons . In 1994 , Sweden signed the Chemical Weapons Convention that forbids the development , production , stockpiling and use of chemical weapons . Biological weapons . Sweden is one of the parties to the Biological Weapons Convention , which outlaws biological weapons . The Convention was signed by Sweden on February 27 , 1974 in Moscow and again on February 27 , 1975 in London and Washington , D . C . . It was ratified by Sweden in February 1976 .