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German nuclear plant back online HANOVER (March 20) : Germany's Unterweser nuclear power station has resumed operation after the removal of British-supplied fuel rods whose safety documents had been faked, the state government of Lower Saxony said on Sunday.

The state's Environment Ministry said in a statement it had given the all-clear for the plant, operated by Veba unit PreussenElektra, to come back online after being given a clean bill of health.

Unterweser was shut down on February 25 after it emerged that four Mox fuel rods supplied by British Nuclear Fuels' (BNFL) Sellafield reprocessing plant had been delivered with forged documentation.

The revelations cost BNFL chief executive John Taylor his job after British nuclear safety officials uncovered "systematic management failure" at Sellafield. Germany has since banned nuclear fuel shipments from Sellafield.

The Lower Saxony Environment Ministry also said the Stade nuclear facility had restarted power supplies after being shut down on February 11 for routine inspections.--Reuters

Copyright 2000 Reuters (Published under arrangements with Reuters

http://www.brecorder.com/story/S00DD/SDC20/SDC20206.htm

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 19, 2000