Decommissioning

Sweden / Regulator Approves Safety Report For Barsebäck Dismantling And Demolition

By David Dalton
12 December 2019

Regulator Approves Safety Report For Barsebäck Dismantling And Demolition
File photo of the Barsebäck nuclear station. Courtesy WikiCommons/Jorchr.
Sweden’s Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) approved the safety report for dismantling and demolition of the Barsebäck-1 and -2 nuclear plants about 30 km from Malmö in southern Sweden.

The Barsebäck station has two ABB-designed 600-MW boiling water reactor units. Barsebäck-1 was permanently shut down in November 1999 and Barsebäck-2 in May 2005.

Sweden’s government decided in 1997 that both units should be closed. Operator Barsebäck Kraft AB appealed and the closures were delayed.

In a separate move, more than 300 people lodged unsuccessful appeals to the supreme administrative court against the decision to close Barsebäck-2, including officials from the local municipality who claimed the closure violated Swedish environmental and industrial laws and EU legislation.

The closure of Barsebäck-2 was finally confirmed in October 2004 following what the government described as failure to reach an agreement with the power industry on the details and timetable for a voluntary phase-out of Sweden’s nuclear facilities. The government had also been under political pressure from neighbouring Denmark.

Barsebäck-1 had closed permanently in November 1999 under a cash and shares compensation deal with owners Sydkraft, which has since become art of the Uniper group.

Since 2006, the station has been free of nuclear fuel. A new intermediate warehouse was built at the site in 2016, where internal parts of the reactors will be stored until they can be transported to a future final repository.

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