Sweden has begun construction of a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, which will operate for 100 thousand tons. Years
Sweden has begun construction on a final repository for spent nuclear fuel, where highly radioactive waste will be stored for 100,000 years. About this informs Reuters.
The Forsmark repository, which will be located 150 km north of Stockholm, will consist of 60 km of tunnels at a depth of 500 meters in rock 1.9 billion years old. It will store 12,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, which will be packed in 5-meter anti-corrosion copper capsules, additionally covered with clay before burial.
The repository is planned to open to receive the first waste in the late 2030s, and the tunnels should be completely filled and closed by 2080. This was announced by the SKB company, which is responsible for the disposal of nuclear fuel and waste.
The project will cost approximately $1.08 billion and will be funded by the nuclear industry. The repository is designed to store waste generated by existing nuclear plants in Sweden and will not accept fuel from future reactors.
According to the World Nuclear Association, the world has accumulated about 300,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that needs disposal. Most of this fuel is stored in cooling pools near the reactors where it was produced.
