5 Mar (NucNet): Activists who entered the grounds of the Oskarshamn nuclear power station in Sweden this morning managed to use ropes to climb onto a building near Units 1 and 2, but not onto any of the reactor buildings, a plant spokesman said.
Plant operator OKG told NucNet that 20 Greenpeace activists climbed over the fence at 07:15 local time this morning and onsite personnel called the police.
OKG said site security personnel caught 15 of the activists almost immediately. The other five managed to climb on top of a building next to Units 1 and 2.
Swedish nuclear regulator SSM confirmed the incident and said it viewed it as “serious”.
According to OKG, the protest was a peaceful one and the activists were expected to leave the facility peacefully with the police. Charges will be pressed for trespassing, OKG said.
Greenpeace said it was protesting against the age of reactors at the three-unit station, arguing that they should be retired. The oldest unit at Oskarshamn is Unit 1, a 440-megawatt boiling water reactor which began commercial operation in February 1972.
OKG said Unit 2 at the station has been in a modernisation outage since June 2013 and is expected to resume commercial operation in September 2014. Unit 1 had problems with turbine vibrations in 2012 and 2013. This caused frequent outages but since January 2014 the unit has been working at full capacity, OKG said.
SSM said it had begun a scheduled periodic safety review of Oskarshamn-1 this year to assess the unit’s possible long-term operation.
Greenpeace said it had also held protests at nuclear power stations in Belgium, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
At the Tihange nuclear station in Belgium operator Electrabel said activists tried to jump over the fence at 06:10 local time, but were apprehended.
At the Gravelines nuclear station in northern France police arrested 18 people who tried to access the site.
At the Beznau nuclear station in Switzerland police arrested "several dozen" activists who tried to climb over the fence. Beznau is the oldest commercially operational nuclear station in Western Europe.
