Almost half of Sweden's nuclear power plant fleet has been offline in recent days due to fresh safety worries, the Telegraph newspaper has reported.
<p>According to the UK daily newspaper, four out of 10 of Sweden's nuclear power facilities have been shut down to address structural or operational problems.<br /><br />Two reactors at the Forsmark plant, which experienced problems last year, were shut down because of problems with a rubber seal on one of the reactors. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Ringhals 1 has been offline with cooling system issues and Ringhals 3 reactor has been out of operation after anomalous instrument readings were recorded.<br /><br />The problems could precipitate another short- term hike in electricity prices for Swedish users as nuclear power makes up about half of the Swedish energy mix, leaving the local wholesale electricity market sensitive to shut-downs.</p>