Nuclear Waste State-of-the-Art Report 2017. Nuclear waste

178 Pages·2017·1.42 MB·English

Nuclear Waste
State-of-the-Art Report 2017
Nuclear waste – an ever-changing issue
Report from the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste, Stockholm 2017
SOU 2017: 8
Nuclear Waste Stateo- ft- herA- t eR op rt 7102
Nuclear waste – an eev rc- hanig n g issue
Translation of SOU 2017:8
The Swedish National Council
for Nuclear Waste
Stockholm 2017
The Swedish National Council
for Nuclear Waste
M( )A:291
Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste
SE-103 33 Stockholm, Sweden
This report can be downloaded from:
www.karnavfallsradet.se
Text processing and layout: Government Offices of Sweden, Office for Administrative
Affairs/Committee Service Unit
Cover: Jonas Nilsson, Miljöinformation AB
Cover photo: Evis Bergenlöv
Translated into English by Richard Nord Translation
Printed by Elanders Sverige AB
Stockholm 2017
ISBN 978-91-38-24571-2
ISSN 0375-250X
To the minister and head of the
Ministry of the Environment and
Energy
The Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste is an independent
scientific committee whose mission is to advise the Government
on matters relating to nuclear fuel, nuclear waste and decom-
missioning of nuclear facilities. In February each year, the Council
publishes its independent assessment of the current state of the art
in the nuclear waste field. The assessment is presented in the form
of a state-of-the-art report. The purpose of the report is to call
attention to and describe issues which the Council considers im-
portant and to present the Council’s viewpoints on these issues.
The Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste hereby submits
to the Government this year’s state-of-the-art report (the seventeenth
in this series) SOU 2017:8 entitled Nuclear Waste State-of-the-Art
Report 2017. Nuclear waste – an ever-changing issue.
This report is endorsed by all members and experts in the Swedish
National Council for Nuclear Waste. English versions of the reports
on the state-of-the-art in the nuclear waste field for 1998, 2001, 2004,
2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 are also available.

Stockholm, 24 February 2017

Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm Tuija Hilding-Rydevik
Chairperson Vice Chairman
Members of the Board
Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm (Chairperson), Senior Professor of
Empirical Life Philosophy Studies at Uppsala University
Lena Andersson-Skog, Professor of Economic History, Umeå
University
Sophie Grape, Associate Professor of Applied Nuclear Physics,
Uppsala University
Mats Harms-Ringdahl, Professor Emeritus of Radiation Biology,
Stockholm University
Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, Professor of Environmental Impact
Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala
Karin Högdahl, Associate Professor of Geology, Uppsala
University
Lennart Johansson, Professor of Radiophysics, adjunct of the
Department of Radiation Sciences, Umeå University
Thomas Kaiserfeld, Professor of History of Ideas and Sciences,
Lund University
Mikael Karlsson, environmental researcher, Royal Institute of
Technology
Jenny Palm, Professor of Technology and Social Change,
Linköping University
Ingmar Persson, Professor of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala
Experts
Hannu Hänninen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Aalto
University
Ingvar Persson, former General Counsel at the Swedish Nuclear
Power Inspectorate
Secretariat
Peter Andersson, Executive Director
Johanna Swedin, administrative officer
Evis Bergenlöv, assistant administrative officer
Contents
1 The nuclear waste field in 2016 ................................. 13
1.1 Introduction ............................................................................ 13
1.2 Summaries of chapters in State-of-the-Art Report 2017 ..... 13
1.2.1 How the requirements on a final repository
for spent nuclear fuel have evolved in Swedish
legislation ................................................................. 13
1.2.2 Future scenarios for the final repository
project ...................................................................... 14
1.2.3 Future political challenges – financing
and retrievability ...................................................... 14
1.2.4 A new generation of nuclear reactors? ................... 14
1.2.5 Organization for a century of challenges ............... 15
1.3 The work of the Swedish National Council for Nuclear
Waste in 2016 .......................................................................... 15
1.4 The nuclear waste field in Sweden in 2016 ............................ 19
1.4.1 SKB’s activities in 2016 ........................................... 20
1.4.2 Organization- and competence-related issues ....... 24
1.4.3 New financing for environmental
organizations ............................................................ 24
1.5 Global perspective ................................................................... 25
1.5.1 Update on the site selection process
in Switzerland .......................................................... 25
1.5.2 Plans for final repository for spent nuclear
fuel in Russia ............................................................ 28
1.5.3 Finland’s final repository for spent nuclear
fuel − the first in the world to start
construction ............................................................. 31
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Contents SOU 2017:8
1.5.4 International cost calculations
for decommissioning .............................................. 32
1.5.5 Deep Boreholes – searching for a site
for testing of boreholes in the USA ...................... 35
1.5.6 Canister development in Canada ........................... 35
2 How the requirements on a final repository for spent
nuclear fuel have evolved in Swedish legislation ........... 41
2.1 Introduction............................................................................ 41
2.2 The early development of nuclear energy in Sweden ........... 42
2.3 The first laws in the field of nuclear technology
and radiation protection ......................................................... 43
2.3.1 The 1941 radiation protection act .......................... 43
2.3.2 The 1956 Atomic Energy Act ................................ 44
2.3.3 The 1958 Radiation Protection Act ....................... 44
2.3.4 The Stipulations Act ............................................... 45
2.3.5 The Act (1981:669) on the Financing of
Future Expenses for Spent Nuclear Fuel etc......... 46
2.4 The Act (1984:3) on Nuclear Activities
(Nuclear Activities Act) ........................................................ 47
2.5 The implications of a licence for nuclear activities ............... 48
2.5.1 The licensee’s obligations ....................................... 48
2.5.2 Requirements on an adequate organization
and sufficient resources .......................................... 50
2.5.3 Research and development activities ..................... 51
2.5.4 RD&D programme ................................................. 51
2.5.5 Regulations issued pursuant to the Nuclear
Activities Act ........................................................... 53
2.6 SKB’s mission to fulfil the reactor owners’ obligations ....... 56
2.7 The state’s ultimate responsibility for final disposal of
spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste ..................... 57
2.7.1 Division of responsibility between the state
and the reactor owners ............................................ 57
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