Managing the Future Swedish Decommissioning Waste

Abstract

By Swedish law it is the obligation of the nuclear power utilities to satisfactorily demonstrate how a nuclear power plant can be safely decommissioned and dismantled when it is no longer in service as well as transporting and dispose the waste in a safe way so that the environment will not be affected.

To meet these objectives, detailed plant-specific studies have and are being performed by Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB (WSE) and TLG Services in cooperation with the utilities of Oskarshamn, Forsmark, Ringhals and Barsebäck on behalf of SKB.

The final closure of most of Sweden’s NPP is far ahead but anyhow there has been a need for developing a more general decommissioning planning basis. These studies result in estimates of radioactive and conventional waste volumes and radioactivities and will be a major input in designing transport systems and final repositories for the decommissioning waste. The studies will also be used as a base for estimation of the associated decommissioning costs.

The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. (SKB) is owned by the Swedish nuclear power utilities and is responsible for managing the nuclear waste by designing, building and operating waste storage and disposal facilities.

The paper will provide detailed data of waste characterization and amounts, as well as of time schedules for the Swedish fleet and show how decommissioning will fit with the existing well- developed waste management system of the country. The standardized waste packages that are planned to be used will be presented as well as managing of the large components, e.g. whole BWR Reactor Pressure Vessels. In order to dispose the radioactive waste the ongoing project to extend SFR (final repository for short-lived LILW) and the planning for the repository for the long-lived waste, e.g. core components will be shown.