A Swedish nuclear plant announced on Friday it had shut down one of its four reactors to locate a "small leak" in its primary cooling system, the latest in a series of incidents to hit Sweden's nuclear power industry.
The "Ringhals 2 (reactor) was shut down on Friday morning for an inspection," the power station said in a statement.
The move was necessary to allow inspectors access to certain parts of the reactor "to examine a small leak in the primary system", Ringhals said.
"This happens from time to time … . The leak is well within safety limits," spokesman for the power station Torsten Bohl told Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
The plant said it would be unable to indicate when the reactor would resume production until it had localised the leak.
"It could be a question of days or months," Bohl said.
Ringhals — located on Sweden's west coast — is the largest nuclear power station in the Nordic region.
Nuclear power accounts for nearly half of Sweden's electricity production.
The country has shut two of its 12 nuclear reactors since 1999 as part of a plan to phase out nuclear power over the next 30 or so years, or when the reactors' lifespan expires.
The problem at Ringhals is the latest in a series to hit Swedish nuclear power plants.
In the most serious incident, an electricity failure at the facility on July 25, 2006 led to the immediate shutdown of the Forsmark 1 reactor after two of four back-up generators, which supply power to the reactor's cooling system, malfunctioned for about 20 minutes.
Some experts have suggested that a catastrophic reactor meltdown was narrowly avoided.
The incident prompted authorities temporarily to shut down five of Sweden's 10 reactors for security checks and maintenance. Some of the reactors remained offline for several months.
Source: Agence France-Presse
