Swedish radioactive waste management company Svensk Kärnbränslehantering SKB can now begin excavation work to expand its short-lived radioactive waste (SFR) repository at Forsmark, following approval of its safety report by the Authority Swedish Radiological Safety Authority (SSM – Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten).

SKB is owned by the nuclear companies Vattenfall AB (36%), Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB (30%), OKG Aktiebolag (22%) and Sydkraft Nuclear Power AB (12%) and has a legal obligation to look after the elimination of Swedish nuclear power plants. nuclear waste and to finance these operations.

Since the mid-1980s, the SFR and the Central Intermediate Storage Facility for Used Nuclear Fuel (Clab) have been in operation. Safe transportation of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants is carried out using a special ship M/S Sigrid.

In December 2022, SKB received an environmental permit from the Land and Environment Court for the SFR extension, allowing surface works to begin. The authorization of SSM was the next important step in accordance with the Nuclear Engineering Act and this means that SKB can begin underground work. SKB requested in December 2014 to extend the repository. The application was submitted to the government by the Land and Environment Court and the SSM in November 2019. In April 2021, the municipality of Östhammar, where the SFR is located, approved the extension. Following a government decision in December 2021 approving the request, the matter was referred to the SSM and the Court.

“We now have all the necessary permits to expand the plant to accommodate our owners’ mining and demolition waste. We look forward to starting the rock work in mid-December,” said Stefan Engdahl, CEO of SKB.

SKB submitted the application for construction and operation of the expanded SFR to SSM in March 2023. The application included, among other things, a preliminary safety report, system descriptions and a settlement plan. The SSM approved the safety report but also set conditions. Before the depot can be erected, SKB must submit a detailed design report. Once this is approved, SKB must also submit a plan of the measures that will be taken during construction, and this plan must be updated every six months.

“Before the expanded plant can begin testing, a new safety report must be reviewed and approved by the Radiation Protection Authority,” said Anki Hägg, an investigator at the SSM nuclear testing unit.

SFR already stores short-lived operational waste from Swedish nuclear power plants and radioactive waste from health, industry and research. The existing part of the depot, which began operations in 1988, lies approximately 60 meters below the bottom of the Baltic Sea and has a storage capacity of 63,000 cubic meters. The facility includes four 160-meter-long rock vaults and a bedrock chamber with a 50-meter-high concrete silo for the most radioactive waste. Two kilometer-long parallel access tunnels connect the facility to the surface.

The new planned part of the storage will be located at a depth of 120 to 160 meters. The expansion includes six different depots and, once completed, the plant will have a total storage capacity of approximately 180,000 cubic meters. The SFR expansion will take approximately six years, including three years of rock work and three years of installation work.

In February, the Swedish government approved SKB’s plans for a disposal system for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark and an encapsulation plant in Oskarshamn. SKB has meanwhile requested to increase the amount of spent fuel that can be stored at Clab from 8,000 tonnes to 11,000 tonnes pending the completion of the final storage.

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