Sweden's Ringhals 4 nuclear reactor outage extended to late February

It is of course not welcome, but it doesn't upend things." Svenska Kraftnat on Nov. 9 said the Ringhals 4 outage and reduced opportunities to import electricity meant Sweden was in a more sensitive position regarding electricity supply this winter than a year ago. Adding to uncertainty, Sweden's biggest nuclear reactor, Oskarshamn 3, will be switched off for maintenance from Dec. 9 to Dec. 18.

Swedish utility Vattenfall said on Friday it had delayed the restart of the Ringhals 4 nuclear reactor by around three weeks to Feb. 23, in a further setback to power supply in the Nordic and Baltic region. Vattenfall said in September the reactor's pressure vessel, a radioactive component, had suffered damage during maintenance and would be out of commission until Jan. 31.

"The repair in the pressurizer is proceeding," it said in a regulatory statement to the Nord Pool power exchange on Friday. The company's new and "more detailed action plan" showed repairs would continue until Feb. 23, the company added.

The extended outage at Ringhals 4, which has an installed capacity of 1,130 megawatts (MW), comes at a critical time as energy prices soar across Europe and countries scramble to ensure there is enough power output for the coming winter. Pontus de Mare, head of systems operations at national grid operator Svenska Kraftnat, told Reuters the delay was unfortunate but had little impact on the operator's assessment of risks of power shortages and power cuts in the coming months.

"In our analyses we had already calculated with a fairly big risk Ringhals 4 could be off-grid longer (than to Jan. 31) and we have based various actions on that. It is of course not welcome, but it doesn't upend things." Svenska Kraftnat on Nov. 9 said the Ringhals 4 outage and reduced opportunities to import electricity meant Sweden was in a more sensitive position regarding electricity supply this winter than a year ago.

Adding to uncertainty, Sweden's biggest nuclear reactor, Oskarshamn 3, will be switched off for maintenance from Dec. 9 to Dec. 18. Vattenfall said in September the damage to the pressure vessel forced Ringhals to build a full-size mock-up of the 12-metre (39 feet) tall structure for training before repairs could take place.

In neighbouring Finland, startup of regular production from the long-awaited new Olkiluoto 3 reactor was recently postponed until Jan. 22 and its energy agency said this week risks of power outages had increased due to uncertainty in domestic production and foreign imports.

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