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• Forsmark for Swedish nuclear waste

  The world's first permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel will be at Forsmark, Sweden's SKB announced today. Construction on the underground repository could begin in 2016 after a licence application in 2010. Posted Jun 03 2009, 08:43 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Sweden, Forsmark, waste

• ABB to help uprate Forsmark unit

  Swiss power and automation technology group ABB has received an order from Vattenfall to support a 160 MWe uprate of the Forsmark 3 reactor in Sweden. Posted Jan 16 2009, 12:10 PM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Sweden, Forsmark, ABB

• Forsmark control rod inspection completed

  Sweden's Vattenfall reported that it has completed inspecting all of the control rods both in the Forsmark 3 reactor and in fuel storage pools. The company said that, of the 197 rods inspected, some 25% have shown signs of cracking. It added that rods that passed visual tests will now undergo electronic testing to ensure they are not damaged. At the end of October, cracks were discovered in a control rod shaft at OKG's Oskarshamn 3 boiling water reactor (BWR) during an annual maintenance outage. Similar cracks were subsequently discovered in six more control rods. As a result, the Swedish radiation safety authority SSM called for immediate inspections at Swedish plants sharing similar control rod designs. Inspections at Forsmark 3 revealed similar problems to those at Oskarshamn. Vattenfall said that the reactor is not now expected to be restarted until late December. A spokesman for Forsmark told WNN that among the many options being studied to enable Forsmark 3 to be restarted was the replacement of the unit's damaged control rods with those from the shutdown Units 1 and 2 at the Barseback plant, which are of a similar design. However, he said much work needed to be done into the technicalities and feasibility of this option. Posted Nov 14 2008, 08:36 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Forsmark, Vattenfall, control rod cracking

• Vattenfall progressing with Forsmark 3 inspection

  Sweden's Vattenfall reported that it has inspected just over half of the 169 control rods of the Forsmark 3 reactor and found that some 30% have signs of cracking. At the end of October, cracks were discovered in a control rod shaft at OKG's Oskarshamn 3 boiling water reactor (BWR) during an annual maintenance outage. Similar cracks were subsequently discovered in six more control rods. As a result, the Swedish radiation safety authority SSM called for immediate inspections at Swedish plants sharing similar control rod designs. Inspections at Forsmark 3 revealed similar problems to those at Oskarshamn. Vattenfall said that it expects to complete inspecting all the control rods at Forsmark 3 by the end of the week, after which the extent of cracking will be analysed. The company said that the reactor is not expected to be restarted until late November at the earliest. Posted Nov 05 2008, 10:48 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Forsmark, Vattenfall, control rod cracking

• Control rod woes for Swedish units

  Maintenance outages at Forsmark 3 and Oskarshamn 3 have been extended after defects were found in control rods. The units, totalling 2323 MWe of capacity, are not expected to restart until the end of November or early December. Posted Oct 28 2008, 01:11 PM by World Nuclear News Filed under: Forsmark, control rod cracking

• IAEA concludes Forsmark operational safety review

  The International Atomic Energy Agency has concluded its operational safety review of Sweden's Forsmark nuclear power plant and expects to submit its final report to the Swedish government within three months. Posted Feb 29 2008, 11:17 AM by World Nuclear News Filed under: IAEA, Forsmark