[NukeNet] A Close Call With Swedish Nuclear Catastrophe?

[Bill Smirnow]

  SPIEGEL ONLINE: Nuclear Mishap: A Close Call
with Catastrophe in Sweden?

  August 4, 2006

An observer has called last week's mishap in
Sweden the worst
incident to befall a nuclear power plant since the
accident at
Chernobyl. Nobody was injured, but for 22 minutes,
workers had no
idea what was happening in the reactor's core.
Swedish officials
have taken half the country's nuclear power plants
offline until
it can ensure their safe operation.

Sweden's nuclear power station in Forsmark: the
worst nuclear
incident since Chernobyl and Harrisburg?

DPASweden's nuclear power station in Forsmark: the
worst nuclear
incident since Chernobyl and Harrisburg?

Sweden's nuclear energy authority, SKI, has
largely completed
its reconstruction of events in an accident last
week that led
to the closure of a nuclear power plant in the
city of Forsmark
and, ultimately, the shutdown of half the
country's nuclear
plants as a precautionary measure. In the
incident, two of the
plant's four backup generators malfunctioned when
the plant
experienced a major power outage on July 25.
According to
officials, who described the event as "serious," a
short-circuit
triggered the accident, which caused a cut in
power to the
nuclear facility. Plant workers told Swedish media
that it came
close to a meltdown.

In fact, the only thing that appears to have
stopped a
catastrophe is the fact that two diesel backup
generators kicked
in, enabling the Forsmark facility to operate at
least part of
its emergency cooling system. Still, for 20
minutes, workers
were unable to obtain information about the
condition of the
reactor and they were only able to respond after
21 minutes and
41 seconds, according to a report in Germany's
Hamburger
Abendblatt newspaper.

Swedish media are reporting that a previously
unknown technical
problem emerged during the emergency that could
also be present
in all other Swedish nuclear reactors.

3 Posts,<br />Latest Post: 07/04<br />By

In its first report, nuclear authority SKI claimed
that operators
of the nuclear plant had reacted correctly during
the emergency.
"In my opinion, the media is exaggerating the
issue," said Jan
Blomstrang, a member of SKI's committee for
reactor security. The
two generators that were still operating, he said,
could have
provided sufficient energy for the reactors if it
had been
necessary. The agency is expected to release a
comprehensive
report in the coming days.

On Thursday, Swedish officials shut down two
further nuclear
power plants as a safety precaution. Plant
operators said the
move was necessary because they could not
guarantee the security
of nuclear facilities in the city of Oskarshamm. A
spokesman for
the company that operates the Oskarshamm plant
said he could not
rule out the possibility of an incident happening
like that at
Forsmark.

After an emergency meeting of SKI officials,
spokesman Anders
Bredfall said that both nuclear power plants in
Oskarshamm would
be taken offline until investigators were able to
deteremine
whether the backup generators at that plant could
fail in the
same way as those in Forsmark.

Official: Worst incident since Chernobyl

Swedish nuclear energy expert Lars-Olov H?nd, head
of the
construction department at Swedish utility company
Vattenfall -- 
and onetime boss at the Forsmark reactor -- has
described last
week's problems as the "worst incident since
Chernobyl and
Harrisburg," a reference to the 1979 meltdown at
Three-Mile
Island in Pennsylvania. He accused the plant's
operators of
trying to play down the seriousness of the event.
For their part,
officials at Swedish nuclear authority SKI have
rejected
H?nd's assessment, describing it as "exaggerated."



Following the latest shutdowns, only five of
Sweden's 10 nuclear
power plants are still operating. Nuclear power
accounts for
close to half of the electricity produced in
Sweden and the
shutdowns triggered record price increases. But
the Swedish
government's energy agency said the nation's
electricity supply
was not currently at great risk because it can
rely more on
hydropower during the summer months.

Sweden is in the process of abandoning nuclear
energy -- a
policy that has led to the shut down of two of the
country's
total of 12 plants since 1999. However, against a
backdrop of
concerns about climate change and energy
dependency, recent
public opinion polls indicate that an increasing
number of
Swedes would like to go on using nuclear power.

dsl/reuters/afp/ap

? SPIEGEL ONLINE 2006