Siting and licensing process

Forsmark, less than a two hour drive north of Stockholm, has been chosen as the site for SKB’s repositories for spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. The siting and licensing process behind this have been an on-going project for more than 40 years. At the site, the disposal facility for short-lived radioactive waste has been in operation for almost 40 years. The latter has recently been approved to be expanded, and construction is on-going.

Therefore, SKB International possess unique experience and valuable knowledge gained from finished and ongoing licensing processes that can be applied to other waste management programmes. Using this, our objective is to support implementor organisations and countries all over the world.

Siting process

Finding a suitable site that meets all the necessary criteria for a geological disposal and is accepted by the local municipality, takes time and a lot of work. In Sweden, two sites were investigated thoroughly, and during the process SKB learned a hard-earned lesson from experiences with political discussions, public relations, and stakeholder’s involvement.

In 2011, SKB concluded on the preferable site to be used in the licence application. The experiences gained by SKB can be seen as a methodology that is now being part of an international recommendation and support document from the IAEA.

Based on SKB’s experience, a stepwise process is favourable. This includes early pre-siting studies, literature studies and geological surveys to increase knowledge of the bedrock conditions important for the long-term safety of a repository.

Deep Geological Repository

The licence application process in Sweden has also been time-consuming and SKB has gained experience from the legal processes, both with respect to the nuclear regulatory authority and the environmental court. 11 years after the original application was submitted, SKB received government approval for the KBS-3 final repository system for spent nuclear fuel in 2022.

Our offering:

• Develop roadmap for DGR programme.
• Site investigation, planning and support during execution.
• Advice on rationales for site documentation.