German government furious with nuclear reactor operator

Energy company Vattenfall has been slow to admit publicly the severity of recent mishaps at two reactors in northern Germany, and German chancellor Angela Merkel is not amused. Vattenfall is a leading energy company in Germany which operates the two nuclear reactors near Hamburg, reactors which were forced to shut down in recent incidents. Twice in as many weeks, the company encountered problems at its nuclear reactor in Krümmel and a separate problem in its Brunsbüttel reactor.

“It does make me angry, and it’s an experience I had while environment minister, when (safety) regulations are not actually followed from day to day,” Merkel, who led Germany’s ministry of the environment under former chancellor Helmut Kohl, told German television on Tuesday. “That needs to be cleared up, and I mean strictissimi (i.e. according to the letter of the law), otherwise we can’t guarantee ongoing safety.”

Der Spiegel reports that Berlin is upset at the fact that Vattenfall attempted to play down two separate incidents which occurred on 28 June. The first involved a fire in the Krümmel reactor. At first, the company said that it was a minor incident involving only a transformer. Later, it was revealed that the reactor itself had been affected by the fire and that employees monitoring the reactors had to put on gasmasks to protect themselves from the smoke. Meanwhile, down the road in Brunsbüttel, the reactor was shut down on the same day as the Krümmel fire. Vattenfall claimed there was a slight leak in a pipe there. Later, it came out that a pipe had exploded due to a build-up of hydrogen.

The company also runs the nuclear plants at Ringhals and Forsmark in Sweden, both of which were shut down briefly last year following major safety issues.