Vattenfall Generation's Certified Environmental Product Declaration of Electricity from Ringhals AB

This constitutes the certified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) of electricity from the nuclear power plant at Ringhals commissioned by Vattenfall AB. The nuclear power plant at Ringhals is a base-load plant of the Swedish electricity system and is tuned to the consumption of electricity, running at maximum power output during the cold part of the year and at reduced power during the summer. As the concept of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) evolves, certified EPDs have been established as a prime vehicle for industry in the communication of environmental impact to professional procurers. This is an EPD in accordance with the system administered by the Swedish Environmental Management Council (http://www.environdec.com). EPD is the Swedish application of ISO TR 14025, Type III environmental declarations. This EPD contains certifiable sections in accordance with rules and regulations. In addition a voluntary, partly qualitative, partly quantitative, and verifiable description of environmental impact is presented. Assessment of impact on biodiversity is specifically included, based on a method called The Biotope Method developed by Vattenfall. The method is continually being developed and is suited for quantitative assessment of the impact from land-use on biodiversity. A previous version of the method was first applied in the EPD for hydropower electricity from the Lule River in 1998, and for the EPD for electricity from the FKA nuclear power plant in 2000. There are also sections on safety, barriers, risks, and radiation as well as precautions against proliferation of weapons grade material, all of which are areas that our customers consider important. The declared product is 1 kWh net (the functional unit) delivered to the national grid during the reference year 1999. The nuclear power plant comprises one boiling-water reactor (BWR), Ringhals 1, and three pressurized-water reactors (PWR), Ringhals 2, 3, and 4 - all four reactors are light water reactors (LWR). Ringhals 3 and 4 are practically identical, and Ringhals 2 is an earlier design. Ringhals is unique in the sense that it is the only site in Sweden, as well as one of very few in the world, that comprises both BWR and PWR. Total installed capacity is approximately 3,530 MW. The first reactor went into commercial operation in 1975, and the fourth and last one in 1983. Since the start in 1974 through August 2000 the total electricity generated was 440 TWh. Ringhals' share of Swedish production of electricity is approximately 17%. During 1999 some 1,100 persons were employed, and production was 25.3 TWh. Since December 1998 Ringhals implements an environmental management system, certified according to ISO 14001 and EMAS registered six months later. The environmental management system is an integral part of Ringhals' management system, which comprises the whole organization, planning, accountability, routines, and processes. This EPD of Electricity from Ringhals AB consists of an environmental performance declaration as well as descriptions of impact on biodiversity, information on risks in the fuel cycle, ionizing radiation, and other relevant information regarding Ringhals AB. In addition to what is presented in the EPD considerably more comprehensive information has been made available to the Certifier. The totality has been reviewed by Bureau Veritas Quality International, and found to comply with the PSR 1998:1 rev.1 and to the MSR 1999:2 normative documents from the Swedish Environmental Council. The certification is valid until February 15th, 2005