Swedish state owned energy company, Vattenfall heavily criticised in Germany

Thursday, 08 March 2012
The Swedish state – owned energy company, Vattenfall, had received harsh criticism in Germany because the company neglected to report that they used steel drums which contained radio active component but it was not reported and no action was taken by the company to redress the issue.

The effect now is that German local politician wants that the authorities ban Vattenfall from running nuclear plants in Germany. Vattenfall has reportedly accepted that they failed to disclose the information.

This happened on the Vattenfall run nuclear plant in Brunsbüttel, Germany which was recently closed as such when regulatory authority inspected it, they found the rusted steel drums with low-emittance nuclear waste in. German authorities are now moving the 500 barrels of the waste from the underground storage at Brunsüttel to an abandoned mine.

Schleswig-Holstein state Justice Minister Emil Schmalfuβ joined in the criticism Wednesday and said Vattenfall should have reported the rusty barrels to the authorities. But no radioactivity had leaked.

The criticism from German politicians is that Vattenfall failed to report it to the authorities even though they knew about it back in December. Vattenfall has repeatedly failed to inform the public or informed the public wrongly according to the Germans authorities. They believe that Vattenfall is not a reliable nuclear power operator as they grossly underestimate the risks involved with nuclear power and also how sensitive the public is to the of the risks associated with its waste.

Vattenfall has recognized that information is broken and that it is unacceptable. Now the company has launched an investigation to find out where it failed, according to Ivo Banek who is CIO at German Vattenfall.

“We do not have the whole picture yet, but it does not seem that the internal communication worked well. Those in the organization who would have been informed were not. Right now, we’ll examine who was informed or not and when and how. Then we'll see what action needs to betaken to ensure that we get direct information in the future. We regret that it was not so in this case,” says Ivo Banek.
By Scancomark.se Team

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