Sweden

Sweden has ten reactors, producing around 45 percent of the country's total electricity.

Low- and intermediate-level waste (L/ILW) is stored at power plant sites (Barsebäck, Ringhals, Oskarshamn) and at the Studsvik Research Center. A centralised underground wet storage facility (CLAB) for spent fuel has been in operation at the Oskarshamn site since 1985. Expansion of this facility was completed in 2008.

A L/ILW repository has been in operation at the Forsmark power plant site (crystalline rock) since 1988.

With a view to constructing a geological repository for spent fuel, extensive site investigations were carried out in the crystalline formations at Oskarshamn and Forsmark between 2002 and 2007. SKB (Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB), the Swedish organisation with responsibility for managing radioactive waste, proposed the Forsmark site in June 2009. A licence application will be submitted in 2010 and pilot operation could begin around the year 2020.

The crystalline bedrock has been under investigation in the Äspö rock laboratory since 1995. There is also a Canister Laboratory at Oskarshamn, where methods for sealing and testing waste canisters are being developed. A conditioning facility for spent fuel (in copper canisters) is currently in planning; an application for a construction licence was submitted in 2006.

Further information:
 

www.skb.se (Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co)
www.ssm.se (Swedish Radiation Safety Authority)

Photographs available for downloading at «Press room - Image archive» on the SKB website.