nuclear power. Swedish Radiation doing thumbs up for the Swedish nuclear fuel and Waste plan for the radioactive nuclear fuel safely stored in 100 000 years. This despite the fact that there are question marks surrounding the enclosure.
Every nuclear reactor produces 20 tons of radioactive waste per year. So it has been ever since 1972, when the first Swedish nuclear power plant for commercial use was taken into operation.
But where, and especially how, nuclear waste to be stored has been an open question ever since.
– the requirement is that it should be stored safely, both for people and the environment, in 100 000 years. During this time we will probably get a new ice age, but it must also be factored in, says Ansi Gerhardsson, director of the disposal unit at the agency.
Long capsules
In 2011, left the Swedish Nuclear fuel and Waste (SKB), a proposal which in short is to fuel should be stored almost 500 meters into the bedrock in Forsmark.
It should fuel be confined in long capsules consisting of five centimeters thick copper with a stabilizing structure of iron which is then embedded in bentonite clay, a plan that the Swedish Radiation Safety now also accepts as a consultative body.
– Our assessment is that encapsulation can be done in a radiopaque and that SKB has the conditions to implement this, says Ansi Gerhardsson.
But not everyone is as convinced. Peter Szakalos, corrosion researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, told SR Vetenskapsradion that copper canisters will rust away.
A thousand years
– I think that it is scientifically proven that copper is such a poor metal that does not work more than a thousand years, says Peter Szakalos.
SKB, however, mean that corrosion is so small that it is irrelevant, something Peter Szakalos not agree with.
at the presentation devoted Ansi Gerhardsson is plenty of time to explain how carefully authority has handled all the details of SKB’s application.
– the examination has been going on for five years and has involved some 80 experts and external consultants in a variety of areas. We have reviewed all comments received to the Authority and we believe that SKB adequately shown how disposal can be done safely, she said.
FACTS
470 meters
SKB submitted in 2011 an application for the disposal of the Swedish nuclear waste in Forsmark. The application also includes a facility in Oskarshamn for encapsulation of the waste.
Radiation Safety Authority submitted today its opinion on SKB’s application to the Land and Environment Court. The Government then makes the final decision.
more than 12 000 tonnes will be encapsulated in the 6000 copper canisters surrounded by bentonite clay, shall be deposited in holes drilled tunnels in the bedrock at about 470 meters depth.
If construction starts in 2019 as planned, the final repository is put into operation in 2027.
Source: Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.
No comments:
Post a Comment