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12 February 2007 - State-owned Swedish energy concern Vattenfall has admitted serious security deficiencies at its controversial Forsmark nuclear power plant.
A company statement said one of the plant's boiling-water reactors had been operating for seven months with deficient rubber seals to its outer walls. The statement said a test rubber sample had been taken last June.
"When the test result had been analysed, it was clear that the elasticity of the rubber packing was insufficient," the company said. The reactor was closed down on 2 February.
Vattenfall spokesman Hans von Uthmann, newly nominated as chairman of the Forsmark Kraftgrupp AB board, described the security failure as "not acceptable." The reactor will again be operational following the replacement of the rubber packing.
Three nuclear reactors are operated at Forsmark, some 140 km north of Stockholm. The plant has since last year 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.
The reactor shut down, but two of four emergency generators failed to start. Several other systems partly malfunctioned, sparking a debate over nuclear safety. Safety procedures at the plant were additionally questioned after the recent publication of an internal report that cited "a deterioration in security thinking," citing some two dozen accidents at the plant.
The controversy led to the resignation of the plant's chief executive officer Lars Lagerberg on 8 February and the approval of a new programme aimed at improving security issues.
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