Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant

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Active reactors:

The nuclear power plant Ringhals nuclear power plant is a Swedish four reactor blocks, one of which is a boiling water reactor and three are pressurized water reactors. It is located in the municipality of Varberg County in the southern Swedish province of Halland.

The nuclear power plant is located on the Värö Peninsula (Swedish: Väröhalvön ) about 60 km south of Gothenburg. With a total installed capacity of 3560 MW, it is the most powerful Swedish nuclear power plant and produces about 24 TWh of electricity per year, which represents 20% of Sweden's electricity consumption.

In the nuclear power plant Ringhals over 1000 people are employed. Operators of the power plant is the Ringhals AB which belongs to 70.4 % at Vattenfall and E.ON to 29.6%.

Incident

Shortly after midnight on 14 November 2006, there was an incident in block 3 of the nuclear power plant, as in one of the two main transformers a fire broke out and he blew it. The reactor was shut down fast and loud authorities information no radioactivity was released. Block 3 was built in 1972, went into operation in 1981 and has a capacity of 915 MW.

Operating under conditions and regulatory oversight

On 8 July 2009 announced the Swedish nuclear regulatory authority SSM that already 60 incidents were reported in the power plant in the first half. Two were classified in the highest of three risk categories. Safety deficiencies which were objected to by the Authority since 2005, had not been resolved by the operator until that time. The Authority raised objections in principle to the necessary safety awareness in parts of the Group. SSM provides the power plant under stricter supervision. Vattenfall has to meet special requirements, among other things, there is a regular reporting requirement. The reactor block 1, which was maintained at this time, may not initially be approached again.

Shutdown due to serious safety deficiencies

On September 19, 2011 reported media that in August 2011 as part of rehabilitation works of reactor 2 after the last fire ( spring 2011 ) Residues of work material were found in the piping of the emergency cooling system. These workers had left there in the 80s when welding. The power plant operator for 30 years did not notice this deficiency. As a result, all four reactors at the power plant were shut down with immediate effect. Also in reactor 4 was found during the inspection then a sealing ring within the emergency cooling system. The closure remains in effect until the operator has placed the shortcomings and can explain how it could come to this long-standing security risk. November 13, 2011 reported media that service work in spring in reactor 2, a vacuum cleaner was forgotten. A short circuit in this test caused during start-up of the reactor fire. The cleaning work is expected to be completed in December 2011.

Margin of safety with explosives

During a routine inspection was on June 20, 2012 on a forklift that should go on the innermost security, "civil explosives " ( a fist-sized piece Sprengteig ) found. Then, a search was started and increased the alert in this and the other two Swedish nuclear power plants by one stage.

Data of the reactor units

The nuclear power plant Ringhals has a total of four blocks: