FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Vattenfall AB chief executive Lars Goeran Josefsson told Berliner Zeitung that his company's German unit did not communicate properly with the public during the recent fire at its Kruemmel nuclear power plant.
'We were incompetent in our efforts to communicate properly,' Josefsson said in an interview to be published in tomorrow's edition.
He added that it was too early to discuss whether Bruno Thomauske, who heads Vattenfall Europe's nuclear energy operations, should be dismissed.
Josefsson also said that Vattenfall had no intention of exiting from the German nuclear energy business.
Vattenfall had to shut down the nuclear power plant on June 28 after a fire broke out when coolant in a large electric power transformer substation ignited due to a short circuit.
The plant is not expected to come back online before the end of August.
The German government said human error caused the fire, as the 'shift on duty at the time of the unplanned shutdown did not act according to operating manuals and training'.
Vattenfall initially downplayed the extent of the damage caused to the plant.
German utility E.ON AG holds a 50 pct stake in the Kruemmel plant.
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