Vattenfall progressing with Forsmark 3 inspection

Sweden's Vattenfall reported that it has inspected just over half of the 169 control rods of the Forsmark 3 reactor and found that some 30% have signs of cracking. At the end of October, cracks were discovered in a control rod shaft at OKG's Oskarshamn 3 boiling water reactor (BWR) during an annual maintenance outage. Similar cracks were subsequently discovered in six more control rods. As a result, the Swedish radiation safety authority SSM called for immediate inspections at Swedish plants sharing similar control rod designs. Inspections at Forsmark 3 revealed similar problems to those at Oskarshamn. Vattenfall said that it expects to complete inspecting all the control rods at Forsmark 3 by the end of the week, after which the extent of cracking will be analysed. The company said that the reactor is not expected to be restarted until late November at the earliest.