Sweden’s Ringhals 4 nuclear power plant shutdown extended until next year

Sweden's Ringhals 4 nuclear power plant shutdown extended until next year

Sweden's Ringhals 4 nuclear power plant shutdown extended until next year. Image: Pieter Kuiper/Public Domain/Wiki Commons

THE reactor shutdown at Ringhals 4 nuclear power plant in Sweden has been extended until January 31, 2023, according to the company on Tuesday, September 13.

Sweden’s Ringhals 4 reactor was shut down in mid-August for annual maintenance when a pressure retainer was damaged.

The extension means that the restart is delayed by two months.

“It is clear that this is a major setback, both for us and for the electricity supply in Sweden,” said Björn Linde, CEO of Ringhals.

Anna Collin, press officer at Ringhals, said: “We informed the market shortly before eight o’clock that the shutdown of Ringhals 4 will be extended to 31 January.”

The repair work was estimated to take three months and the planned restart was to take place at the end of November.

“This is because ever since the damage occurred, work has been done to come up with a plan of how long it will take to restore the damaged component.”

According to Collin, the reason for the earlier deadline of November 30 was that the market needs constant notification.

The repair work includes building a full-scale model of the 12-metre-high pressure vessel at the Ringhals test centre.

Collin added: “We have now been able to map the damage properly and we need special tools to clean it up and spare parts. Therefore, we have now come to the conclusion that we need additional time for repair.”

“The pressure vessel is radioactive, all work is prepared carefully and practising in a test environment helps us to work safely and efficiently when we are ready to carry out the actual repair work,” said Björn Linde.

He added: “I can guarantee that we do everything we can to work in this way, if we have the opportunity we will try to get on the grid earlier than that.”


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Written by

Matthew Roscoe

Originally from the UK, Matthew is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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