[ RadSafe ] Shutdown of Barsebaeck 2

[Franta, Jaroslav]

Franz,

Here's some more info on this & related Swedish issues......

Jaro 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Barsebäck-2 Closure Set To Go Ahead After Court Rejects Appeals
NucNet
Source: Barsebäck nuclear power plant
Editor: David Dalton
2005 May 31

Sweden's Barsebäck-2 reactor unit was set to be permanently shut down today,
31st May 2005, following a Swedish Supreme Administrative Court decision to
dismiss appeals that may have kept it operating. 

More than 300 people had lodged appeals against a government decision to
close the 600-megawatt boiling water reactor unit, including officials from
the local municipality who claimed the closure violated Swedish
environmental and industrial laws as well as EU legislation (see Briefs No.
7, 20th January 2005). 

But a spokesman for Barsebäck nuclear power plant, near Malmo in the south
of the country, confirmed to NucNet on 30th May 2005 that the court had
dismissed the appeals and the unit's closure would go ahead as scheduled. 

The closure decision, announced in October 2004, followed what the
government described as failure to reach an agreement with the power
industry on the details and timetable for a voluntary phase-out of Sweden's
nuclear facilities (see News No. 191, 6th October 2004). 

Barsebäck-1 closed permanently in November 1999 under a cash and shares
compensation deal with owners Sydkraft (see News No. 484, 30th November
1999). The Barsebäck nuclear power plant is jointly owned by Sydkraft and
national energy company Vattenfall.
===================================================

Sweden shuts down second nuclear reactor in phase-out plan
Agence France Presse English 
Tue 31 May 2005 

STOCKHOLM, May 31 (AFP) - Sweden will shut down its Barsebaeck 2 nuclear
reactor at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, the second reactor to be taken
out of service in the country since 1999. 

Sweden plans to phase out nuclear power, which still accounts for nearly
half of the Scandinavian country's energy supply, over the next 30 or so
years. 

The first reactor at Barsebaeck was shut down in 1999. Barsebaeck 2 accounts
for 3.75 percent of Sweden's total electricity production. 

The country voted in a non-binding referendum in 1980 to phase out its 12
nuclear reactors by 2010, but that target was abandoned in 1997 after
officials acknowledged that there would not be sufficient alternative energy
sources to replace the nuclear output. 

In October 2004, the minority Social Democratic government clinched a deal
on the Barsebaeck 2 reactor in southwestern Sweden with the formerly
agrarian Center Party and the Left Party. 

Under that deal, the government will promote the use of wind power,
biofuels, solar energy and hydro power to replace the lost nuclear energy,
as consumers will be obliged to buy a pre-determined amount of electricity
produced from these so-called "clean" sources. 

Natural gas will also be used during a transition period. 

Yet a poll published just weeks after the October 2004 agreement was reached
showed that a whopping 80 percent of Swedes were in favor of maintaining or
expanding the country's nuclear facilities. 
Only 16 percent of those questioned said they wanted the nuclear plants to
be dismantled. 

The pro-nuclear sentiment in Sweden is thought to be linked to worries that
ridding the country of nuclear power would further boost electricity prices,
which have sky-rocketed by 50 percent on average since the deregulation of
its energy market eight years ago. 

Including Barsebaeck 2, Sweden's 11 nuclear reactors, located at four
separate plants, currently make up about half of the country's electricity
production. Experts say nuclear production is likely to fall to 44 percent
by 2010, or 31 percent of total energy consumption. 

Modelled on Germany's plans to phase out nuclear energy, the programme says
existing plants should continue running as long as they "contribute
economically", which means, in effect, until the end of their normal
operating lives. 

In a few years the government will begin to look at the oldest reactors to
determine which should be shut down next. 
=============================================

NUCLEAR NEWS FLASHES - Friday, May 20, 2005
INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
--SWEDISH VICE PRIME MINISTER BOSSE RINGHOLM WOULD NOT ANSWER DIRECTLY
yesterday 
when asked in the Riksdag (parliament) whether the government would accept 
state-owned Vattenfall investing in a new French nuclear reactor. However he

said that when operating outside Sweden, utility management should
"obviously 
follow the laws in those other countries." Ringholm added that Vattenfall
needs 
to operate outside of Sweden to remain competitive. The Swedish government, 
however, is officially committed to decommissioning nuclear in Sweden. Green

lawmaker Ingegerd Saarinen put the question to Ringholm during a general 
question-and-answer session, citing a May 19 story in Nucleonics Week that 
suggested Vattenfall subsidiary Vattenfall Europe is considering such an 
investment, if approved by Swedish headquarters. Vattenfall does not have 
operations in France, but has been criticized in Sweden for its ownership of

German nuclear and coal-fired power.
=========================================

Sweden approves uranium search
AP, Tuesday, April 26, 2005
 
A Canadian company has received permission to take specimens for possible
uranium deposits in four places in northern Sweden, a Swedish Radio report
said Sunday. Toronto-based Continental Precious Minerals was permitted to
investigate bedrock for three years in the province of Jamtland and Lapland,
one of Sweden's northernmost regions.
================================


Swedish Support For Nuclear Rising 25 Years After Phase-Out Referendum
NucNet
Source: Hans Ehdwall, KSU
Editor: Daniel MacIsaac
2005 March 24

A new public opinion poll indicates a continued rise in the support for the
use of nuclear energy in Sweden over the past two years.

According to the poll, the average level of support has been on the rise
between November 2003 and March 2005. Overall the poll results are
consistent with those of a previous poll from October 2004 which, like the
latest poll, was also conducted by Swedish polling organisation TEMO on
behalf of the country's Nuclear Training and Safety Centre (KSU) (see News
in Brief No. 47, 2nd November 2004). 

KSU said the results of the new poll, involving telephone interviews with
1,027 Swedes between 28th February and 3rd March 2005, "show a clear
majority for nuclear power as an energy source". A minority of poll
respondents (13%) supports the early closure of Sweden's 11 operational
nuclear power units. More than four out of five of respondents (83%) want to
maintain the operation of those units or replace them with new ones. 

Specifically, 34% of respondents want to maintain the current units as long
as they continue to meet the safety demands of the Swedish authorities; 30%
said it is acceptable to replace older units shut down because of reasons of
safety with new units; 19% favour expanding the use of nuclear and building
additional units; 13% favour a quick phase-out of nuclear energy; and 4% are
undecided. 

On choosing among environmental priorities, 82% of respondents said Sweden's
priority should be preventing an increase in greenhouse gas emissions; 11%
said it should be the protection of the country's remaining undeveloped
rivers against hydroelectric power development; 4% said it should be the
phase-out of nuclear power; while 3% were undecided. 

The latest poll and the overall positive opinion toward the use of nuclear
energy comes some 25 years after a national referendum favoured its
phase-out in Sweden. It also follows all four Swedish nuclear plants
reporting record production figures for 2004 (see News No. 15, 24th January
2005) and confirmation by the Swedish government that electricity generation
at unit two of the Barsebaeck nuclear power plant must end by 31st May 2005
(see News No. 217, 17th December 2004).
========================================

NUCLEONICS WEEK MARCH 24, 2005
Swedish opposition leaders say build new units, keep old running

Nuclear power should be considered as environmentally
friendly as renewable energy and Sweden should build more
reactors instead of decommissioning its units, leaders of the
country's Liberal Party said last week.
In an energy policy program they plan to present to the
party's congress in August, a working group said that new
units should be built at Ringhals, Forsmark, and Oskarshamn.
In addition, they said that the government should reverse its
decision to shut Barsebaeck-2, now slated to happen no later
than May 31. Barsebaeck-1, shut by government order in
November 1999, should be restarted they added.
"Politicians are not the best (people) to determine when
a reactor should be shut," the working group said in its program.
"Reactors should be shut when a competent authority
determines they no longer meet safety or environmental
requirements or when their owners chose to do so for economic reasons."
With an eye toward defeating the Social Democrats, who
run a minority government, in the 2006 election, the
Liberals have been making nuclear a high-profile issue. The
Social Democrats are hoping to avoid discussion of nuclear
during the campaign.
The working group included former IAEA director general
Hans Blix, the party member who successfully championed a
controlled phase-out of nuclear during the 1980 national
referendum on decommissioning. That was a middle ground
between an immediate phase-out and no phase-out, and also
allowed those units under construction at the time to be finished
and placed on line.
But working group members said that the voters' decision
in the referendum is no longer valid, because the situation
is completely different today than it was 25 years ago.
"We know today that sun and wind, which many hoped
could replace nuclear, do not have that potential," they said.
In addition they said more nuclear is the only way to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and meet reduction targets set
under the Kyoto Protocol.
The group added that more than 50% of Swedes were too
young to vote in the 1980 referendum and asked: "Is it reasonable
that many of those affected by the referendum
couldn't influence the decision?"
Swedish law prohibits research which would lead to
development and construction of nuclear power. The
Liberals called for that law to be nullified. They added that
better technology and more efficient operation would make
building new reactors economically viable, something which
even Swedish utility managers question.
Besides providing electricity, the working group suggested
that new reactors' waste heat could be used for district
heating in areas near the plants.
They added that the special nuclear capacity tax-which
taxes nuclear power based on installed capacity and what
units in theory can produce, rather than actual production-
should be abolished, along with subsidies for wind power
and biomass. "They skew competition, increase prices and
create problems for energy producers and consumers," the
group said.-Ariane Sains, Stockholm
=====================================================

NUCLEAR NEWS FLASHES - Friday, March 18, 2005
INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
--NEW REACTORS SHOULD BE BUILT AT THE FORSMARK AND RINGHALS SITES, members
of 
the Swedish Liberal Party's Energy Working Group said today. Swedish law 
currently prohibits new units, but the group called for the law to be
changed. 
The group said a new reactor could be economic, despite critics' claims that
it 
would be too expensive to build. The group added that warm water from the
new 
reactors should be used for district heating in the nearby cities.
==========================================

NUCLEAR NEWS FLASHES - Thursday, March 17, 2005
INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
--WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC BELGIUM HAS WON A CONTRACT TO UPRATE RINGHALS-3 by
about 125 megawatts, company management said today. The value of the
contract was not disclosed. Work will begin with this summer's maintenance
outage and is scheduled to finish in July 2007. The uprate is one of a
series planned for Swedish reactors.
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