International Review - a Milestone in the Nuclear Waste Issue

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• Publié par: skb
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English

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International Review - a Milestone in the
Nuclear Waste Issue
PR Newswire
STOCKHOLM, June 13, 2012
STOCKHOLM, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/
-An international review team appointed by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
and commissioned by the Swedish government has reviewed SKB's application to
build a final repository for spent nuclear fuel at Forsmark. Their conclusion is that
the SKB safety analysis provides a satisfactory and credible platform for the
licensing process.
The review has been in progress for over 12 months, and the final report was presented
today. It is an important milestone in the current licensing process. In the report, NEA
states that SKB's method is both mature and innovative and that it meets the safety
requirements.
"We have been looking forward to this final report and are delighted about the positive
opinions expressed in it. Although the licensing process is still far from being completed, I
am happy that the international review team has given our application such recognition,"
says SKB President Claes Thegerström, commenting the news.
The international review team says that SKB has shown that the method meets all the
specified requirements and is sufficiently safe. They also point out that there are several
areas where additional research is needed to further strengthen confidence in the findings
of the safety analysis, SKB has already started work and research projects in a number of
these areas.
"A huge amount of material has been reviewed, and many additional questions have been
asked over the past year. We have worked hard to answer them, and we appreciate the
thoroughness of the review report the international review team has now presented. Their
recommendations provide good support for SKB's continuing work," says Allan Hedin,
head of SKB analysis of long-term safety.
The international review team also emphasizes the importance for SKB to clearly show
the chain of events whereby theory is transformed into practice, i.e how to translate safety
analysis into industrial production and application. This work is ongoing and will become
increasingly important closer to the start of construction and operation. The results of this
work will be reviewed and evaluated by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, SSM, in
the coming licensing process.
The review report also praises SKB's approach to public outreach work that is described
as at the forefront of international practise.
About the OECD-NEA international review team:
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) is an international
organisation that helps industrialized countries with democracy and market economies.
The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has organized over 15 expert reviews of
safety reports on final repositories for spent nuclear fuel in different countries.
The International Review Team (IRT) consists of ten experts within different scientific
areas who come from organizations and universities in seven countries.The areas of the application that have been reviewed concern long-term radiation
safety and the choice of location and method.
The review was commissioned by the Swedish government and has been managed by
the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, SSM.
The review report is available at the SSM website, http://www.ssm.se.