The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) on Wednesday said it had preliminarily identified the east coast village of Forsmark as the best site for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility.
Forsmark, which is already home to a nuclear power plant and radioactive waste repository, was among eight sites considered for the underground storage site, according to a SSM press release. The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co.(SKB) in June 2009 picked Forsmark as its top site in a head-to-head competition against Laxemar, which is further south on the east coast.
“From among those locations where the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company has examined the prospects for repository siting, the Authority’s preliminary assessment is that Forsmark is the most suitable from the perspective of radiological safety. That which most strongly speaks for Forsmark includes its geological conditions, with minimal fracturing in the bedrock and low groundwater flow,” Ansi Gerhardsson, SSM head of section, said in a press release.
SSM also assessed SKB’s findings on the potential outcomes of any radiation release from the repository. “The Authority is cautiously positive in its preliminary findings,” according to the release.
The agency ultimately is scheduled in spring 2016 to deliver its findings regarding SKB’s license application to the Swedish land and environmental court and its final report in 2017 to the national government. “It is still too early to draw any conclusions on what our overall assessment will be. SSM still has critical matters of substance to examine, for example relating to the long-term integrity of disposal canisters,” Gerhardsson said.
The government will rule on the permit, though Östhammar Municipality, which encompasses Forsmark, also has veto authority on the facility.
Sweden holds roughly 12,000 metric tons of spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear power industry. It would be interred 500 meters underground.