17 Jan (NucNet): Swedish utility Vattenfall has begun a 10-year consultation process for an environmental impact assessment for possible new nuclear reactors at its four-unit Ringhals nuclear station, the company said in a statement yesterday.
The company said consultation with government agencies, local residents and other stakeholders is an important part of long-term analysis that will determine whether replacement nuclear should be built. A decision is not expected until around 2020, the statement said.
Vattenfall is a majority owner of the Forsmark and Ringhals nuclear power stations in Sweden. Their seven nuclear reactors started commercial operation between 1975 and 1985.
The company said last year that it hopes to operate its two oldest units, Ringhals-1 and -2, for 50 years and its five other units, Ringhals-3 and -4 and Forsmark 1-3, for up to 60 years.
In August 2012, Vattenfall submitted an application to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority for permission to build and operate one or two new nuclear reactors.
The company said no investment decision had been made and the application was part of a long process aimed at determining how existing nuclear should be replaced when a possible phase-out of existing reactors begins in the latter half of the 2020s.
