Works at Sweden's Ringhals-3 reactor prolonged to reposition fuel element

Stockholm — Annual maintenance at Sweden's Ringhals-3 reactor had been prolonged by more than two months so that a fuel element which became loose in a temporary storage pool could be moved back into its correct position, owner Vattenfall said in a statement June 9.

The 1,128-MW Ringhals-3 went down for maintenance May 24 and was scheduled to be reconnected to the grid June 20.

The element had become loose from its mooring in the storage pool when it was being inspected and cleaned underwater in the pool, Ringhals production manager Sven-Anders Andersson said in the statement.

He said the element was undamaged and intact but needed to be carefully moved back into its correct position. In total, there are 260 elements in the temporary storage pool.

Andersson said prolonging the maintenance outage would give sufficient time to get the element back in place and finish the maintenance work. He said the element would be moved using special hydraulic equipment.

In a statement May 26, Andersson said that among the work to be done during the outage were the repair of condensers and painting the floor of the containment.

About 650 people are involved with the outage, 350 of them contractors.

The 1,180-MW Ringhals-4 reactor is scheduled to be shut for maintenance from July 28 to Sept. 9.