Annual report 1997

SKI's mission is to ensure, through its regulatory and supervisory activities, that a number of national goals and international obligations for nuclear safety and the non-proliferation of nuclear explosives are fulfilled. This task also includes ensuring that funds are set aside for financing the future expenses for the handling and final disposal of nuclear waste and nuclear fuel. Furthermore, SKI must give decision-makers, specific groups and the general public comprehensive and objective information concerning nuclear-related risks and safety. SKI's activities must focus on ensuring that: a high level of safety is attained in Swedish nuclear activities and that initiatives are taken to implement safety-improvement measures; nuclear waste is disposed of in a safe manner; there is adequate breadth in the industry's activities with respect to the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Priority must be given to those tasks that are of importance for safety. In SKI's opinion, the results achieved in 1997 with respect to the development and application of activity-oriented supervision, on the basis of clearly defined safety requirements, are of considerable importance for the safety of Swedish nuclear activities. This is particularly so in the light of an increasing focus on financial considerations as a result of the deregulation of the energy market and the greater exposure to competition. SKI intensified its efforts within the areas of long-term competence and method development. In total, just over 20% of the human resources of the departments engaged in regulatory and supervisory activities was devoted to this type of long-term work, which SKI considers to be satisfactory in view of the imbalance of previous years with an overemphasis on current regulatory actions and event-controlled activities. The fact that work on the promulgation of regulations and the development of SKI's internal quality system has made considerable progress is of vital importance for the future