Sweden Works On Expanding Forsmark’s Radwaste Repository

Sweden’s radioactive waste management company Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) signed a collaboration agreement with construction firm Skanska regarding the expansion of the existing SFR (Short-lived radioactive waste) final repository at Forsmark.

SFR currently holds approximately 63,000 cubic meters of short-lived low- (LLW) and intermediate-level (ILW) waste. It is situated 60 metres below the bottom of the Baltic Sea and began operations in 1988.

SKB applied in 2014 to triple the size of the repository to about 180,000 cubic metres, in order to have enough space for waste deriving from operations and future decommissioning of Sweden’s nuclear power plants, the company said. The expansion is supposed to be located at a depth of 120–140 meters, at the level of the lowest part of the current SFR.

Following the issue of several permits during the last years, SKB received an environmental permit from the Land and Environment Court for the expansion in December 2022 and it’s currently waiting for the approval of the Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) to extend the SFR.

The planned start of construction is autumn 2024.

Read the story on World Nuclear News.

Sweden produces more than 30% of its electricity from its six nuclear reactors operating in Forsmark, Oskarshamn and Ringhals.

The majority of radioactive waste stored in the SFR comes from Sweden’s nuclear power plants, but radioactive waste from hospitals, veterinary medicine, research and industry is also deposited within it.

On 27th January 2022, the Swedish Government also approved the project proposed by SKB to build a final repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark and an encapsulation plant in Oskarshamn.