Nuclear power in Europe

Finland and Sweden are working on technology for the safe burial of nuclear waste in bedrock. A partly Finnish-designed machine was on display at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden. The purpose of the device is to transport the dangerous materials deep into caverns excavated for the purpose.

The highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel needs to be isolated for at least 100,000 years.

Sweden is preparing to bury a total of about 12,000 tonnes of radioactive uranium waste. (more…)

STOCKHOLM, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Swedish power group Vattenfall said on Tuesday an inspection had revealed one broken control rod and cracks in about 30 percent of others at its Forsmark 3 reactor.

Forsmark communications director Claes-Inge Andersson told Reuters that about 100 out of 169 rods had been inspected and cracks had been found in some 25-30 percent of them. (more…)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Managers of an atomic power plant in Sweden used janitors to guard the facility when the alarm system was malfunctioning, according to a critical report Thursday from the country’s nuclear watchdog.

In a statement on its Web site, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority called the incident at the Oskarshamn plant serious because the workers had no training as security guards. (more…)

Stockholm - Two of Sweden’s 10 nuclear reactors were to be offline for at least a month as checks continued on the control rods used to control the nuclear fission process, officials said Monday. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority last week ordered operators to check the control rods after cracks were detected in the control rods at one of the three reactors at the Oskarhamn nuclear plant, south-eastern Sweden. (more…)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish nuclear reactor was shut down Tuesday for safety checks after an annual review of a similar reactor found cracks in several control rods.

Workers found cracks in at least five of 90 rods of a reactor at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant during annual maintenance work earlier this month. That reactor was closed for maintenance and has yet to reopen. (more…)

Stockholm - The Swedish nuclear watchdog on Wednesday filed charges against the operators of a Swedish nuclear plant over failing to uphold security checks at the plant. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said the Oskarshamn nuclear plant operators had failed to ensure 24-hour checks of people entering and leaving the site.

The security lapse was detected in connection with an inspection at the end of May, the nuclear watchdog said. (more…)

STOCKHOLM, May 21 (Reuters) - Swedish state energy firm Vattenfall said the country’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant had received a bomb threat on Wednesday, and a source at the site said a building was sealed off after an employee was found carrying explosives.

Police said they were questioning a suspect at the Oskarshamn plant, south of Stockholm on the Baltic coast, but could not immediately confirm he was an employee of the facility. (more…)

Robin Pagnamenta in Oskarshamn, Sweden

Inside the cavernous hall of a nuclear storage plant in southern Sweden, an 18-tonne steel canister, bristling with tiny fins to draw out excess heat, is being hauled slowly through a hatch by a crane.

Packed with highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from a reactor north of Stockholm, the canister is being made ready for 30 years of storage in pools sunk into the bedrock. Once it cools sufficiently, it will be placed permanently in a final repository deep underground. (more…)

Sweden’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant on Tuesday shut down one of its reactors because of a valve problem, a plant official said.

Anders Osterberg, a spokesman for the OKG company running the Oskarshamn plant, said there were no safety concerns related to the problem and that the shutdown would only be temporary.
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A minor fire has to day occured at the swedish nuclear power plant Oskarshamn2. The plant is shut down. No comments from media or Authorities so far. (more…)