With (almost) every industrial activity comes waste, and Nuclear power plants are no exception. Taking care of the radioactive waste is certainly no waste of time. To protect humans, animals and the environment from harmful ionizing radiation, waste handling in Nordic (i.e. Sweden and Finland) nuclear facilities is strictly regulated by national laws and directives on European level. In both countries nuclear waste must be handled within the country (with certain exceptions).
The Nordic systems for radioactive waste handling are very complex and technically challenging. Very simplified, the waste is categorized by its activity (how harmful it is) and by its lifetime (for how long it will be harmful). If the activity is negligible the waste may be free released and treated like any industrial waste. Very low (but not negligible) activity waste can be disposed in near-surface repositories or sometimes treated by melting or incineration to reduce activity and/or size.
More active, so called Low- and intermediate-level waste (such as for example spent filters, protective clothes or building materials and components from outages or decommissioning), is stored 60-110 meters deep in Finish and Swedish bedrock. In addition, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB, is planning to build a repository for long-lived low- and intermediate-level waste (currently stored in interim storages), on approximate 500 meters depth.
The most harmful radioactive waste is the spent nuclear fuel. This must be isolated for at least 100,000 years. Today spent nuclear fuel is stored in water pools waiting for final disposal.
Currently we are in a very exciting time for the waste! The research and development of the final disposal for spent nuclear fuel has been ongoing for decades to make sure we have a safe solution and now we are getting close to the realization. The Swedish and Finnish design is built on the same principle with copper canisters surrounded by bentonite clay deposited approximately 500 meter in the bedrock. In Finland, the deployment of the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel has progressed steadily and is planned to begin in the mid-2020s. In Sweden the construction application is waiting for governmental decision.
The final disposal for spent nuclear fuel is important for our generation, so that we can take full responsibility for the waste generated in the energy production during our lifetime. At the same time we cannot know for sure if future generations will consider spent nuclear fuel to be waste or a resource.
Nuclear Hero Uniper