FORSMARK VAULTS ADVANCE | WASTE MANAGEMENT


Forsmark vaults make advances


Sweden is advancing development of its underground storage complex at Forsmark to extend the vault for short-lived radioactive waste and, separately, move ahead with construction deeper below the surface to hold spent fuel in sealed silos


By Patrick Reynolds


SWEDEN’S DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANSION of its Forsmark waste storage vaults has enjoyed significant progress over the last few decades, especially in the last 10 years. As a result, more excavations are beginning at the coastal site to expand an existing vault for short-lived radioactive waste. Far more tunnelling is also set to commence in the near future to create a deep geological repository. The granitic rock mass north of Stockholm, offers large and


separate zones to hold different types of waste storage, from low level waste to spent nuclear fuel. The repository as planned will be a vast warren of tunnels,


carefully and progressively opened up in the chosen bedrock. The deep geological repository has a time horizon of multiple millennia for safe storage of spent fuel. However, with decades of excavations and storage activities ahead, in terms of infrastructure construction at a normal human scale, the development of the high-level waste storage vault is a long- term project. The Forsmark site in Östhammar municipality has hosted a vault at shallower depths, for short-lived waste since the late 1980s. The vault is the final repository for radioactive waste from power plants as well as from research, industry and medical uses. The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co


(SKB – Svensk Kärnbränslehantering) is now extending this waste vault to triple its capacity. Rock blasting for the extensive excavations began in late 2024. The full construction project is expected to take about six years to


complete. Its excavations will be underway as those for the neighbouring deeper vault, for spent fuel, also get underway. A third storage system class is needed by SKB, for long-lived radioactive waste. It is still in planning and the site is yet to be selected. The last and smallest of the three vaults, it would store metallic materials such as core components, control rods, and reactor pressure vessels for example.


Deep Geological Repository – The journey begins Forsmark was not, from the outset, the predetermined site to provide deep burial of high-level waste. It was competing against the bedrock characteristics of another keen candidate, the Laxemar site, in Oskarshamn municipality, in the south of Sweden. Oskarshamn already hosts an interim storage facility


for spent fuel (Clab) in water-filled concrete basins with steel linings 30m down in the bedrock. Operational since the mid-1980s, SKB is seeking to expand as existing capacity would be reached before the Forsmark deep repository is operational. Excellent bedrock is key to safe storage of spent fuel with strong and highly competent rock mass, along with favourable groundwater characteristics. While Laxemar initially looked able to host the storage vault at slightly deeper depths until new analysis of rock stresses showed that “these stresses have less impact on the repository depth” than had been assumed, according to SKB’s report ‘Site Investigation:


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Above: Construction is underway to extend the underground repository for short- lived radioactive waste at SKB’s Forsmark site. Credit: SKB


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