Vattenfall calm on two German reactors

LONDON (Reuters) - Sweden's Vattenfall VATN.UL has no timeframe for reopening its two north German nuclear plants but sees merit in their outage as it lengthens their operating time, Chief Executive Office Lars Josefsson said on Monday.

Speaking at the Reuters Energy Summit, Josefsson said the Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel plants, which were grounded by safety-related incidents last summer, were still undergoing extensive safety checks and tests.

"A number of things still need to be corrected,...it is very time-consuming," he said.

But he added the income stream from the plants, which have a joint capacity of 2,208 megawatts, was "delayed, not diminished."

"This may be a blessing in disguise," he said, referring to forward prices for wholesale power, which are in contango, meaning the prices of 2010 and 2011 delivery are above that of 2009.

Both plants must shut eventually like Germany's other 15 reactors under a national nuclear exit program, which envisages nuclear production to stop completely by 2021.

Because permissible production for each plant is allocated on a basis of the megawatt hours it may still produce, an extensive standstill "helps" the plants stay on standby for times when German nuclear operators hope future governments may reverse the deal.

The necessary work at Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel included testing and swapping anchor bolts, which need to be strengthened so that the plants may withstand earthquakes, before supervisors can consider approving their reopening, Josefsson said.

Vattenfall has said that the outages cost it 600,000-700,000 euros ($933,500-1.09 million) a day in earnings from lost power sales.

A fire last June caused a short circuit at Brunsbuettel and then at the adjacent Kruemmel.

In 2006, Vattenfall's Swedish Forsmark plant north of Stockholm had to carry out an emergency shutdown. It is under orders from the United National nuclear watchdog IAEA to take additional safety measures.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)