Swedish spent fuel management: Systems, facilities and operating experiences

About 50% of the electricity in Sweden is generated by means of nuclear power from 12 LWR reactors located at four sites and with a total capacity of 10,000 MW. The four utilities have jointly created SKB, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, which has been given the mandate to manage the spent fuel and radioactive waste from its origin at the reactors to the final disposal. SKB has developed a system for the safe handling of all kinds of radioactive waste from the Swedish nuclear power plants. The keystones now in operation of this system are: a transport system; a central interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, CLAB; a final repository for short-lived, low and intermediate level waste, SFR. The remaining system components being planned are: an encapsulation plant for spent nuclear fuel; a deep repository for encapsulated spent fuel and other long-lived radioactive wastes. The paper describes the transport system and CLAB and experiences gained during several years of operation. The paper also deals with the ongoing activities and plans concerning the encapsulation plant and the final repository