Waste Management

Sweden / Regulator Approves Waste Programme As It Waits For Final Repository Plans

By David Dalton
1 April 2020

Regulator Approves Waste Programme As It Waits For Final Repository Plans
The nuclear power industry’s research and development programme to handle waste from Sweden’s nuclear power plants meets legal requirements, regulator SSM has told the government.

The main point of the latest programme is the presentation of plans for development of a final repository for long-lived radioactive waste.

The planned repository at Forsmark is intended to accommodate about 12,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel. SKB has said it hopes to start construction “in the early 2020s”.

SSM said Swedish Nuclear Fuel Management AB (SKB) and the reactor owners had met requirements set by the government for the R&D programme.

Every three years, the owners of the country’s nuclear power plants must submit an R&D programme detailing how they will dispose of waste from the operation and decommissioning of nuclear plants.

In 2019 SKB submitted the programme to SSM on behalf of the owners. SKB is owned by nuclear operators and is responsible for managing Swedish nuclear and radioactive waste.

SSM said it had recommended that the government approve the programme. “It meets the requirements set by the law, as well as the conditions set by the government,” SSM said.

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