[ RadSafe ] The incident at Forsmark 1 in Sweden

Mon Aug 7 10:54:53 CDT 2006

Dear Lars,

What part is "not true"?  Did Hogland never work for Vattenfall? Was not head of construction dept? Not boss at Forsmark?

Thank you.
Regards, Jim Muckerheide

> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl 
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Lars Persson
> Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 3:47 AM
> To: Maury Siskel; Radsafe Message; Gunnar Buckau
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] The incident at Forsmark 1 in Sweden
> 
> 
> The incident was classified by the Swedish nuclear authority 
> - SKI as 2 on
> the IAEA scale- Harrisburg as 5 and Tjernobyl as 7.
> See www.ski.se.
> 
> Not true: "Swedish nuclear energy expert Lars-Olov Högland, 
> head of the
> construction department at Swedish utility company Vattenfall -- and
> onetime boss at the Forsmark reactor."
> Lars Persson
> Slånbärsv 11A
> 19334 Sigtuna
> 08-568 219 26
> 
> 0708-297100
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]On
> Behalf Of Maury Siskel
> Sent: den 6 augusti 2006 03:49
> To: radsafe
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear Mishap; A Close Call with Catastrophe in
> Sweden?
> 
> 
> 
> SPIEGEL ONLINE - August 4, 2006, 03:19 PM
> URL: 
> http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,430164,00.html
> 
> Nuclear Mishap
> 
> A Close Call with Catastrophe in Sweden?
> 
> 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?
> DPA
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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 Högland, 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 Högland'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
> All Rights Reserved
> 
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