Head of German nuclear plant sacked after reactor breakdown (Roundup)

Jul 8, 2009, 0:48 GMT

Hamburg - Swedish-based electricity group Vattenfall sacked the head of one of Germany's nuclear power stations on Tuesday, three days after a short circuit crippled the reactor he managed.

Although the malfunction did not involve the reactor itself, it has renewed debate over nuclear power back just three months before the German general election.

The incident occurred east of Hamburg Saturday at the Kruemmel reactor, one of Germany's 17 reactors.

Vattenfall blamed the plant manager, whom it did not name, for failing to install discharge detectors on a transformer as promised to German authorities.

The two electrical transformers supplying power to on-site machinery would be completely replaced after one of the units failed, the company said. That means Kruemmel will not resume generating power for the German grid for several months.

A previous transformer fire shut down the entire plant for two years. Kruemmel was commissioned in 1983.

Gitta Trauernicht, whose portfolio as social policy minister for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein includes regulation of the Kruemmel plant, welcomed the transformer decision, saying she had been telling Stockholm-based Vattenfall for months to 'replace rather than repair.'

Polls show a majority of Germans hostile to nuclear power, convinced it is unsafe. Vattenfall's errors in running plant machinery have tended to confirm those fears.

Vattenfall's troubles mounted late Tuesday when Swedish media reported that Sweden's nuclear-regulatory authority was considering stricter supervision of the company's operations in the country.

The possible action follows a reported 60 incidents reported at Vattenfall's Ringhals nuclear plant in Sweden. Among the problems were two incidents described as very serious.

After a series of incidents since 2006 at Vattenfall's Forsmark nuclear plant, the company was criticized for a deterioration in its 'safety culture.'

   There are 17 nuclear reactors at 12 sites in Germany, producing around a quarter of the country's electricity. The then-governing Social Democrat-Greens coalition decided in 2000 to decommission all German reactors by 2020.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested she might extend the lives of the reactors if she wins the September 27 general election and is able to rule without the Social Democrats, which whom she is currently in coalition.