The conditions for SKB’s biggest construction project – the final repository for spent nuclear fuel – are now being established

In January 2022, SKB was granted permissibility and a licence by the Government to build a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark in Östhammar Municipality and an encapsulation plant in Oskarshamn. It is now time for the main hearing at the Land and Environment Court in Nacka on 17-20 September and 24-27 September, at which the conditions for the construction of the final repository and encapsulation plant will be established.

Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants in Sweden is managed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., SKB. For more than 40 years, SKB has been conducting research and technological development to produce the best solution for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel, known as the KBS-3 method.

Anna Porelius, Head of Communications, SKB.

Anna Porelius, Head of Communications, SKB.

— By taking care of the radioactive waste from the Swedish nuclear power plants, we contribute to fossil-free electricity production and a sustainable society. We already have a system of facilities in operation today, but in order to fulfil our mission, we have to build facilities to encapsulate and provide a final repository for the nuclear fuel produced by Swedish reactors. Before we can start construction, we need an environmental judgement from the Land and Environment Court and an approved safety analysis report from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, says Anna Porelius, Head of Communications at SKB.

More about the final repository for spent nuclear fuel and the encapsulation plant

Following careful site surveys, Forsmark in Östhammar Municipality was the site chosen for the final repository. The repository will be located at a depth of 500 metres in rock that is 1.9 billion years old. The final repository will hold 12,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, which will be encapsulated in approximately 6,000 copper canisters and disposed of in tunnels extending more than 60 kilometres underground. A layer of bentonite will be packed around the canisters, to act as a buffer and protect against minor movements in the rock. The encapsulation plant will be built next to the central interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, Clab, in Oskarshamn Municipality. The fuel will be taken up from the interim storage facility, encapsulated in copper canisters in Oskarshamn, and transported by the specially built vessel m/s Sigrid to the final repository in Forsmark for disposal.

SKB hopes to be able to start construction of the final repository during the 2020s, so that it can start to be taken into use approximately ten years later. The final repository will be fully extended at some time in the 2080s.

Published: 26 September 2024