The spent fuel elements are to be buried 500 meters deep in rock near the Forsmark nuclear power plant, Environment Minister Annika Strandhall announced on Thursday. “By doing so, we ensure that we can use nuclear energy for the transition to becoming the first industrialized nation in the world to abandon fossil fuels,” said Strandhall.
The planned repository is the result of 40 years of research and exploration. The government in Stockholm expects the last nuclear power plant to go offline sometime in the 2040s. After about 70 years, when the shafts of the repository are full, the entrances are to be filled with bentonite clay to prevent water from penetrating. Then the system is permanently sealed.
In contrast to Germany and Austria, nuclear energy is seen as a transitional technology in several European countries in order to convert to renewable energies with as little greenhouse gas emissions as possible. The EU also wants to classify nuclear energy as sustainable.
Sweden decided in 1980 to phase out nuclear energy. However, in 2016 the main political parties agreed to keep the six existing reactors online. In addition, up to ten new reactors should be able to be built at the existing nuclear power plant sites. However, the construction of new reactors has so far been rejected as uneconomical.
Source: Nachrichten
