German reactor running again after outages

BERLIN, June 30 (Reuters) German authorities gave the green light today for the Brunsbuettel nuclear plant in northern Germany to be reconnected to the power grid after a short-circuit led it to be switched off on Thursday.

''There are no security issues and therefore there are no legal reasons preventing it from being started up again,'' said Gitta Trauernicht, social affairs minister in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein where the plant is located.

Another nuclear plant in Kruemmel near Hamburg, which was also shut down on Thursday after a fire broke out at a nearby electric power substation, remained switched off pending further investigations into the incident.

Authorities said the fire had not damaged the reactor nor posed a threat to people in the area.

Both plants are operated by Vattenfall Europe and E.ON and together supply 16 terawatt hours or half of Schleswig-Holstein's annual power requirements.

Vattenfall Europe said on Thursday that the switch-off at Brunsbuettel was related to a load drop on the power network when Kruemmel was taken out.

The unscheduled outages boosted wholesale power prices on Friday, traders said.

Kruemmel, which opened in 1983, is one of the oldest types of reactors still working in Germany.

The country is in the process of phasing out nuclear power by 2020 under plans agreed under the previous governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens.

Reuters NY VP0016