Oskarshamn NPP

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Summary:
The town Oskarshamn, which is located on the east coast of Sweden, close to Sweden's second largest island Öland, was the first place in Sweden, where big commercial nuclear power plants were built. The first two boiling water reactors (BWR), Oskarshamn 1 and 2 were built in 1972 and 1974 and are still in operation. The biggest swedish BWR reactor with 1,450 MW is as of 2014 Oskarshamn 3, which is operating since 1985. Alltogether the 3 Oskarshamn reactors produce some 10 % of Sweden's electricity generation. The operator OKG made a request for upgrading Oskarshamn 3 by 250 MW, which was approved by Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) in 2005. However Oskarshamn 3 is operating with 1,450 MW only since late 2011, because of repeating turbine problems. Nonfunctional emergency diesel aggregates at Oskarshamn 1 since 2002 and problems with emergency diesel aggregates at Oskarshamn 2 temporary led to enforced shutdown by the Swedish nuclear safety authority Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten (SSM) in December 2012. OKG made another request for upgrading Oskarshamn 2 from 605 MW to 840 MW. These plans were supposed to implemented in 2015, but have been postponed already. OKG asked for operation license for the upgraded reactors 1 and 2 for 60 years each, a lot more than the designed lifetime. OKG belongs to energy companies E.ON (54.5 %) and Fortum (45.5 %). OKG is one of the largest employers in Kalmar county. . E.ON has expressed interest in replacing O1 by a new reactor to be located on the nearby island Ävrö, which is already owned by OKG. All of Swedish high-level spent nuclear fuel is temporarily deposited at the Clab repository in Oskarshamn.

A research working group has expressed interest in building a 4th generation research reactor (lead-cooled fast reactor, LFR) at Simpevarp. The plan would be to reprocess some of the spent fuel stored at the Clab repository and test it in the research reactor. The group consists of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology (internationally in a leading position in spent fuel reprocessing research), and former Swedish financial minister Allan Larsson. OKG and Oskarshamn municipality have been positive, but SKB has been hesitant towards the research reactor proposal.

Data:
Coordinates: 57°24′56″N 16°40′16″E


 * Operator: OKG (Oskarshamns Kärnkraftsgrupp), private corporation owned by E.ON Sverige (54.5 %) and Fortum (45.5 %)
 * Capacity: total 2 603 MW. (O1: 492 MW, O2: 661 MW, O3: 1,450 MW)
 * How much radiation it sets free: Average radiation dose measured among OKG workers: 2,0 mSv.
 * Dates of construction & operation:
 * O1: start of construction 1966, start of operation 1972, major renovations 1993-95, 1998 and 2002.
 * O2: start of construction 1969, start of operation 1974, major renovations were scheduled for 2007, 2009 and 2013/2014.
 * O3: start of construction 1980, start of operation 1985. (planned already 1976, but due to the political debate around nuclear power, the start of construction was delayed to after the referendum about nuclear power in 1980)
 * OKG plans to have the plant running for about 30 years more, a 60-year life-term per reactor.
 * Proposed new reactors:
 * replacing O1 with a new reactor
 * 4th generation spent fuel research reactor at Simpevarp.
 * Electricity production: 16.8 TWh. Oskarshamn NPP's production makes some 10 % of Sweden's electricity production.
 * type of reactor: BWR (Boiling Water Reactor), H2O+Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU). O1 was Sweden's first commmercial reactor. O2 has the same contruction as the two Barsebäck reactors.
 * how much waste a reactor produces per year: Spent fuel is stored at the facility for at least 9 months, then moved to Clab for intermediate storage for 30-40 years.
 * Fuel information: LEU. Mainly from Canada, but also from Russia and a number of other contractors.
 * Employees: some 930. In addition there are also some 100 subcontractors people at the facility. During the annual periods in summer when the fuel is changed and preventive facility maintenance is done, additional 500-600 people may be working in the area.
 * number of people living around the facility: Oskarshamn municipality 26 131 (2010) The NPP is located ca 30 km north of Oskarshamn town on the east coast of Sweden, close to Sweden's second largest island Öland.
 * number of accidents: "We have had accidents such as e.g. fires, high-current-cable accidents and falls from scaffoldings, however we have not had any nuclear accidents."

Critics

 * Greenpeace
 * PO Box 15164, 104 65 Stockholm, Sweden
 * phone: +46-8-702 7070, +358 9 698 6317
 * fax: +46-8-694 9013, email: [mailto:info.nordicATgreenpeace.org info.nordic AT greenpeace.org]
 * http://www.greenpeace.org/sweden

Links

 * Operator of Oskarshamn Oskarshamns Kärnkraftgrupp: http://www.okg.se Swedish/English

Additional resources

 * Nuclear Site Oskarshamn in flexRISK

''Note: most of the references below are links to the swedish webpages of OKG, but most of the same info can be found on the corresponding english-language pages (link to english frontpage in the links section above). However, the swedish pages have been more recently updated.''