BACKGROUND: Tighter measures in wake of 2006 Swedish incident

Mar 14, 2011, 13:43 GMT

Stockholm - Sweden in 2006 was reminded of the need to continually revise security measures at nuclear plants when a short circuit hit a switchyard outside the Forsmark plant, north of Stockholm.

The July 2006 incident resulted in the shutdown of one of the three reactors at the plant.

Backup generators however failed to start as they should, and subsequent probes revealed problems with reporting and follow-up of maintenance at Forsmark.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority in September 2006 introduced special supervision of the Forsmark nuclear facility that remained in place until April 2009.

During that period, a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducted a review of the plant and offered recommendations that have been adopted.

Vattenfall, the state-owned utility that is majority owner of Forsmark, also replaced the managing director at Forsmark.

Nuclear power provides about half of Sweden's electricity.

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

The Forsmark plant comprises three boiling water reactors, and has been operating since the 1980s.

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