ENERGY

Oskarhamn 3 is closed for eight days. This increases the risk of higher electricity prices, according to an expert.

The cause is a problem with the fuel, a “secondary fuel damage”.

– We go down on Friday and are disconnected from the electricity grid for eight days. We have a secondary fuel damage. This means that tiny pieces of fuel have come out into the internal process water, says Desirée Liljevall, communications manager at the owner company OKG.

By next weekend, the reactor will be connected to the electricity grid again, she explains. The question is whether there could be any risks for a longer stop than the eight days that are now planned.

– I can not answer that. But this is not that complicated. First we will take the plant to cold mode, then the 700 fuel bundles will be taken up and examined, they are lifted up slowly, slowly.

After that, tests must take place before the restart, according to Desirée Liljevall.

According to Magnus Thorstensson, electricity market analyst at Energiföretagen, this means a tangible risk of rising electricity prices.

– It is unfortunate that this is happening in southern Sweden, which has already been hit hard. Less production means higher prices, although it depends on several other factors such as temperature levels and wind, he says.

Magnus Thorstensson also highlights that the transmission capacity of electricity between the north and Sweden may be affected by Sweden’s largest nuclear reactor, Oskarshamn 3, being shut down for eight days.

– The risk of that is great. But how big it is, only Svenska kraftnät can answer.

The Oskarshamn 3 nuclear power reactor, with its 1,450 MW, is the Nordic region’s largest electricity production facility that is in operation today.

In November 2021, fuel damage is discovered in the reactor. At the end of February 2022, the reactor was shut down to fix the problems. At the time, it was assessed that the shutdown would lead to an increased need to import electricity to southern Sweden by 2,000 MW, Ny Teknik wrote about it at the time.

At the end of 2022, 9 to 18 December, Oskarhamn 3 was shut down due to a detected generator failure.