16 Mar (NucNet): US-based Westinghouse Electric Company has completed a decommissioning project at the Barseback nuclear power station in Sweden that included the underwater segmentation and packaging of the reactor vessel internals.
Westinghouse said it had also carried out upfront engineering studies, and equipment manufacturing and qualification for the project, which was part of the first dismantling and decommissioning of a commercial nuclear power plant in Sweden.
Barseback-2, a 600-MW boiling water reactor unit, began commercial operation in July 1977 and was permanently shut down in May 2005, with decommissioning work beginning in August 2016.
The closure decision, announced in October 2004, followed what the government described as failure to reach an agreement with the power industry on the details and timetable for a voluntary phaseout of Sweden’s nuclear facilities
Its sister unit, Barseback-1, was permanently shut down in November 1999.
Westinghouse said it is now due to begin decommissioning work on Barseback-1, with an estimated completion date of April 2019.
