[ RadSafe ] The world's first permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel will be at Forsmark, Sweden's SKB announced today.

[Jerry Cohen]

Generally, logic and reason have not played  major roles in development of nuclear waste management policies.  However, in Sweden  any policy that might make sense has been particularly avoided. For example, in the 1980's , to protect against any long term hazard, they proposed to encapsulate their nuclear waste in heavy lead canisters  for underground burial. Simple calculation showed that after ~400 years of decay, the waste would become less hazardous than its lead container. ----Back to the drawing board----------- and several more years of research it seems they have come up with  even sillier policies.

Jerry Cohen



________________________________
From: John R Johnson <idias at interchange.ubc.ca>
To: George Stanford <gstanford at aya.yale.edu>; Cary Renquist <cary.renquist at ezag.com>
Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl
Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 12:27:15 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] The world's first permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel will be at Forsmark, Sweden's SKB announced today.

And unmined uranium ore still contains 100% of the energy it started with!

John
***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
4535 West 9th Ave
604-676-3556
Vancouver, B. C.
V6R 2E2, Canada
idias at interchange.ubc.ca

----- Original Message ----- From: "George Stanford" <gstanford at aya.yale.edu>
To: "Cary Renquist" <cary.renquist at ezag.com>
Cc: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] The world's first permanent disposal site for used nuclear fuel will be at Forsmark, Sweden's SKB announced today.



     Is there nobody influential in  Sweden who
knows that the used fuel that they're going to
bury in clay -- presumably irretrievably -- still
retains 95% of the energy it started with?

     Nobody who knows that fast reactors can access that energy?

     Nobody who knows that the waste form fast
reactors (such as the IFR) is mainly fission products (one ton per GWe-year)?

     Nobody who knows that the activity of that
waste becomes too low to worry about within 500 years?

     Nobody who knows that 90% of the ore's
energy remains in the depleted uranium that's
left over from the enrichment process -- energy
that also can be used by fast reactors?

    Nobody who knows that the IFR technology is
ready now for a commercial-scale demonstration?

    We don't seem to be very good at telling
people about what nuclear power can do for the world, do we?

        George Stanford
        Reactor physicist, retired

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At 01:43 PM 6/3/2009, Cary Renquist wrote:
Forsmark for Swedish nuclear waste
03 June 2009

The world's first permanent disposal site for
used nuclear fuel will be at Forsmark, Sweden's SKB announced today.


The decision was announced by SKB President,
Claes Thegerström today after a board meeting
yesterday. Forsmark, in the municipality of
Östhammar, was selected in favour of Laxemar in
the Oskarshamn municipality after a process of
investigation and engagement that has lasted since 2002.



Site works towards the underground facility could
begin in 2013, with full construction starting in
2015 and operation in 2023. This single facility,
using only 15 hectares above ground, would hold
all of the high-level radioactive waste from the
nuclear power reactors that provide about 45% of
Sweden's electricity. SKB will apply to nuclear
safety regulators for premission to build in around one year's time.



The repository is designed to isolate the wastes
for the 100,000 years it will take until their
levels of radiation return to the original low
levels of natural uranium. Used nuclear fuel
assemblies are to be packed in cast iron baskets
within thick copper canisters and packed in clay
almost 500 metres below gound in a continguous
section of igneous rock. At that level,
groundwater movement is so slow that the wastes
could never affect life at the surface. The
method, known as KBS-3, was selected in 1983.



The competition to host the site was hard fought,
with both communities taking keen interest - both
municipalities already have nuclear facilities.
Forsmark already hosts a nuclear power plant and
the final repository for short-lived radioactive
waste, but its selection for this facility comes
as something of a surprise. The used fuel for
disposition at the CLAB interim store is in the
Oskarshamn municipality near Laxemar, as will be
the encapsulation plant. Also in that region is
the Äspö hard rock laboratory where much of the
practical work to demonstrate the disposal method has taken place

---
Cary Renquist

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