Swedish nuclear power provider OKG said this week it would soon start work to move spent fuel from its recently closed Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant reactor Unit 1 into interim storage.
The reactor had been scheduled to end operations on June 29 following 45 years of power production. However, it will not be reactivated after an automatic shutdown on Saturday that was prompted by an “operational disturbance,” according to an OKG press release.
Following a short-term outage, the company will begin work on the transport of Unit 1’s spent fuel into Sweden’s central facility for used fuel from the nation’s 12 reactors. It expects to complete the project in late 2018 or early 2019.
OKG spokeswoman Maria Roth on Wednesday said she did not have details on the amount of used fuel to be transferred or the cost of the effort. The fuel would remain in the national wet-storage site, about 15 miles from Oskarshamn, for at least 30 years before being moved into Sweden’s planned permanent facility.
Unit 2 at the Oskarshamn plant operated from 1974 to 2015. Spent fuel relocation from that reactor is nearly complete, Roth said without providing additional details.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy in January received a three-year contract to support disassembly of the two Oskarshamn boiling-water reactors.
Sweden’s Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel holds roughly 6,500 metric tons of material. All current and future spent fuel from the nation will ultimately be placed in a deep underground repository at Forsmark.
