On April 22, 2016, people visited the near-completed nuclear waste treatment plant at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Chen Junfeng)
Stockholm, 27 Jan (Xinhua) -- The Swedish government approved the construction of the first nuclear waste repository on 27 January to solve the problem of long-term safe storage of nuclear waste in its country.
It is understood that the nuclear waste repository will use copper tanks, bentonite and bedrock three layers of barriers to protect people and the environment from radiation damage. The nuclear waste will be encapsulated in copper tanks, surrounded by bentonite and placed in bedrock about 500 meters deep. The repository will be able to store 12,000 tonnes of nuclear waste for an estimated 100,000 years.
According to reports, the nuclear waste repository will be built by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company in the town of Foshmak, about 140 kilometers north of Stockholm. The company said it would take about 10 years to build a nuclear waste repository and a matching packaging plant, which would require an investment of about SEK 19 billion (about $2 billion).
Sweden's Climate and Environment Minister Annika Strander said at a news conference on the same day: "This technology and capability [of nuclear waste disposal] already exists. It is irresponsible to store nuclear waste in water tanks and not dispose of it year after year. We must not pass that responsibility on to our children and grandchildren. Our generation must be held accountable for our waste. ”
However, some Swedish scientists have questioned the safety of the scheme. Peter Shokarosh of the Royal Swedish Institute of Technology told Swedish television that the copper tank could crack under corrosion.
According to the World Nuclear Industry Federation, Sweden currently has 3 nuclear power plants with a total of 6 reactors, which can meet about 40% of the country's electricity needs.