Nuclear plant 'could have gone into meltdown' (Sweden)

[jpak]

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=4487&date=20060801

The sudden stop at the Forsmark nuclear power plant just north of Stockholm was the most dangerous international nuclear incident since the destruction of the Russian Chernobyl plant 20 year ago, said nuclear expert and former boss at Forsmark Lars-Olov Höglund in Uppsala Nya Tidning on Tuesday.

Two of the four generators turned off last week at the plant. Höglund said the construction flaw that caused them to shut down existed in the remaining two and could have lead to a complete meltdown.

“It was pure luck that there was not a meltdown,” he said. “Since the electricity supply from the network didn’t work as it should have, it could have been a catastrophe.”

He said without power the temperature would have been too high after 30 minutes and the reactor would have been damaged. Within two hours there would have been a meltdown

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edit: Fermi 1 meltdown (1966) pure luck, Browns Ferry fire (1975) pure luck, Three Mile Island (1979) pure luck, Davis Besse (2002) pure luck, Chernobyl (1986) luck run out...

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm sorry, where was Chernobyl a matter of luck?

Everything comprehensive I've heard about it was that the meltdown there was a result of a stupid experiment that went very, very bad.

[jpak]

2. They gambled...and they lost

better luck next time...

[Kagemusha]

3. I think you're comparing apples and oranges, but whatever...

Not worth arguing about.

[midnight armadillo]

4. To be fair, quote more of the article:

Ingvar Berglund, head of safety at Forsmark, said there wasn t a risk of a
Chernobyl-like accident.
We know exactly what happened and it was an incident that could have been
serious but that it could have been the most serious incident since the nuclear power incident at Chernobyl is totally wrong, he said.


So there ;-)

[jpak]

5. Ingvar Berglund, head of safety at Forsmark (covers his ass)

former boss at Forsmark Lars-Olov Höglund (tells it like it is)

So there...

:P