Nuclear power in Europe

Stockholm (Platts) - 13 Nov 2008 Forsmark management said it will try to use control rods from the closed Barsebaeck nuclear power plant to replace rods with broken and cracked shafts in Forsmark-3.

About 25% of the Swedish unit's 197 rods are cracked and at least one is broken. In a November 13 statement, Forsmark management said it wants to use the Barsebaeck rods because it would be difficult to quickly order and install so many new rods.

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.

Forsmark nuclear power plant has been criticized by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) for slack security after it found that an emergency cooling system vent had been shut for a year.

During a routine inspection on August 18th this year, SSM inspectors discovered that an emergency cooling vent in reactor 2 at the Forsmark nuclear plant on Sweden's east coast had been closed since their inspection there a year earlier.

Stockholm - Confidence in the Swedish nuclear power industry has dropped to its lowest level in 20 years in the wake of a reactor shutdown in 2006, a report said Wednesday. The autumn 2007 survey by Gothenburg University researchers suggested 39 per cent had "very great or rather great" confidence in information about energy and nuclear power issues issued by the nuclear power industry, down 10 percentage points on 2006.