Unit 1 of Sweden’s Oskarshamn NPP in has been permanently shut down, operator OKG announced on 19 June. The unit has been closed 10 days ahead of its schedule closure on 29 June after an "operational disturbance" on 17 June led to its automatic shutdown. OKG’s main shareholder, German power company E.ON decided in October 2015 that units 1 and 2 of the Oskarshamn plant should be shut down permanently. Unit 1 was to close between 2017 and 2019, with no further investments at unit 2. E.ON attributed the closure decision on low wholesale electricity prices, the burden of Sweden's tax on nuclear power and "additional requirements on extensive investments".
OKG announced in February 2016 that Oskarshamn 1 would be shut down in conjunction with a planned outage at the end of June 2017.
In the first of four phases of decommissioning, fuel will be removed and stored in its fuel pools for about a year, before being transported to Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB's near-by used fuel facility at Clab. After all fuel has been removed, the unit will enter a phase of care and maintenance. Dismantling and demolition of the unit will begin later, and after the site is cleared and classified as free from radioactivity it can be used for other purposes.
Oskarshamn 1, a 473MWe boiling water reactor (BWR), started up in 1972. Unit 2, a 638MWe BWR, began operating in 1974 and is scheduled to shut down by 2020. In January, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) was awarded a three-year contract by OKG to dismantle the reactor internals of both units. GEH will segment the reactor pressure vessel internals of both units and will, cut and pack the reactor internals for final disposal.
