Sweden restarts nuclear reactors

Sweden restarts nuclear reactors

Two of three Swedish nuclear reactors shut down this month following minor incidents were restarted this week, the Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) said on Friday.



"Ringhals 2 and Forsmark 2 were restarted this week," SKI spokesman Anders Joerle told AFP. The Ringhals 2 reactor, on the west coast south of Gothenburg, was stopped on February 16 due to a "small leak" in its primary cooling system. The Forsmark 1 and 2 reactors, north of Stockholm on the east coast, were halted on February 3 after a fault was found in rubber panels in the Forsmark 1 reactor's housing. On Friday, Forsmark 1 was the only one of Sweden's 10 reactors that was out of service. Sweden said earlier this month that it would ask the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the Forsmark plant, after a slew of incidents there. Nuclear power accounts for nearly half of Sweden's electricity production. The country has shut two of its 12 nuclear reactors since 1999 as part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 or so years, or when the reactors' lifespan expires. © 2007 AFP