Swedish nuclear power plant security plan presented

Mar 7, 2007, 11:07 GMT

Stockholm - Proposed measures to raise security awareness at the Forsmark nuclear power plant were generally praised Wednesday, although the Swedish nuclear watchdog called for some additional steps before approving the plan.

The Forsmark plant has in recent months been criticized for a deterioration of security routines and has been under review by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) after a shut-down of one of the reactors late July 2006 after a short-circuit in a switchyard outside the plant.

State-owned energy group Vattenfall that is majority owner of Forsmark launched a programme last month aimed at restoring better respect for security issues.

A new board chairman and a new chief executive officer were appointed, and jointly promised to improve security awareness.

The plans were also sent to SKI. After reviewing them, SKI said the Forsmark board and management had 'clearly stated' that safety was a priority.

Additional steps ordered by SKI included to extend the plan to a few more personnel groups, including duty staff in charge of supervising that the reactors are operated according to applicable regulations.

Planned management training for some key staff categories should be conducted earlier than 2008 as the Forsmark management had proposed, SKI said.

SKI said that as part of its efforts to chart security thinking, Forsmark needed to use a various measures including questionnaires, surveys, interviews, observations and reviews of documents - as recommended by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

Three nuclear reactors are operated at Forsmark, some 140 kilometres north of Stockholm.

Nuclear power provides about half of the country's electricity.

At its height, Sweden had operated 12 nuclear reactors. Two at the Barseback plant in southern Sweden have been decommissioned, the most recent in May 2005.