Sweden’s Environmental Court hearing proposal for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark

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This is of particular interest to Australia. The Australian government touts Finland as the great model for acceptance of nuclear waste dump. But in fact, the model adopted by Finland, (by a poorly informed public) was taken from the one refused by Sweden – where a much more informed community used a much more democratic process to study the waste dump issue. See “When haste makes risky waste: Public involvement in radioactive and nuclear waste management in Sweden and Finland” http://bellona.org/…/radioactive-waste…/2016-08-21710

The Environmental Court’s main licensing hearing about a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark – September 5 to October 27 http://www.mkg.se/en/the-environmental-court-s-main-licensing-hearing-about-a-final-repository-for-spent-nuclear-fuel-in#.WbJtaWAl7II.facebook The Environmental Court’s main hearing concerning the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company SKB’s license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark, Sweden, began September 5, at Quality Hotel Nacka in Stockholm. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SSNC, and the Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG, are working together during the main hearing. Follow and get updates during and after the main hearing from the Twitter account of the director of MKG, Johan Swahn, and MKG’s Facebook.

On September 5, the Environmental Court’s main hearing concerning the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company SKB’s license application for a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark, Sweden, began at Quality Hotel Nacka in Stockholm. The main hearing will be in progress for five weeks, between September 5 and October 27. The first two weeks take place in Stockholm. Then, there will be a break for two weeks. The third week will take place in Oskarhamn (were the interim storage Clab is located and were the Waste Company wants to build an encapsulation facility, Clink) and the fourth week will take place in Östhammar (nearby the selected site for the final repository). After another break for one week, the main hearing will be concluded in Stockholm.

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, SSNC, and the Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG, are working together during the main hearing. The organisations will bring their statements, which fundamentally are:

- The chosen solution for a final repository will not be safe since there is a large risk of the malfunction of the barrier system of copper and clay – the licence application should be denied or rejected!
- There is a large risk that the copper canisters will break down within 1 000 years – a possible scenario is that it might be a contaminated, uninhabitable, forbidden zone in Forsmark!
- The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, SSM, is aware of the large problems with the license application, but still wants to give an OK to continue towards a Government decision and afterwards ensure that the copper canister will function as intended – this is unaccepted and legal questionable!
- There is an alternative method, the use of very deep boreholes – that might be environmentally safer, entails less risks for human intrusion, and is most likely a less expensive solution for final disposal!
- The nature existing on the suggested site in Forsmark is of high value (there is a number of red-listed species and species protected by the Habitats Directive’s appendix 4) – this, in itself, constitutes a reason to reject the license application!

Follow and get updates during and after the main hearing at the director of MKG’s Twitter (@jswahn) and at MKG:s Facebook (mostly written in Swedish but can be translated directly on the website).

Links:

The negotiation procedure of the main hearing, 170704 >>

The director of MKG’s Twitter >>

MKG on Facebook >>

Previous news on MKG’s website:

Regulator recommends approval of final repository plan — despite unresolved safety issues, 160629 >>

Reject the application! Legal brief from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and MKG to the Environmental Court and SSM, 160531 >>

September 9, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, Sweden, wastes

1 Comment »

No cask material can last forever and no depository can be abandonned. It needs to be monitored for perpetuity and waste canisters changed. I’m currently all for hard rock underground or possibly above ground bunkers perpetually monitored and in the case of underground perpetually pumped and dehumidified.

I’m wary of boreholes which can’t be retrieved or monitored and may reappear as sinkholes, groundwater contamination and who knows what – underground criticality? I wonder if some of the oil industry is actually involved in waste dumping already?

In reality many of the cheaply made waste Areva and Holtec canisters can’t be moved without repackaging so they need to drop a concrete building over them and monitor it for radiation. This is especially true in the USA.

If I recall correctly the Forsmark facility is on the water front and if abandonned will be indirectly ocean dumping over time, because it will fill up with water.

I’m not certain why some non-Swedes are gleeful over this rejection as it ups the chances of Swedish waste ending up in less socially conscious and less geologically fit areas like Cumbria, like WIPP built in leaking and collapsing salt in New Mexico, like Savannah River Nuclear Site – hot and swampy. All three impoverished. And, in fact, some Swedish waste was sent to the USA and will end up in one of the two places.

Sweden focusing on canisters is simply silly – of course it won’t last forever: “The chosen solution for a final repository will not be safe since there is a large risk of the malfunction of the barrier system of copper and clay – the licence application should be denied or rejected! There is a large risk that the copper canisters will break down within 1 000 years – a possible scenario is that it might be a contaminated, uninhabitable, forbidden zone in Forsmark!”

Comment by miningawareness | January 31, 2018 | Reply

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