The site of the world’s first permanent nuclear waste repository, located in Forsmark, Sweden, has been selected by Swedish waste management company, Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB).
The site, which is around 200km north of the capital, Stockholm, will receive all waste produced by Sweden’s nuclear facilities which will then be encased in impermeable copper canisters with iron inserts, and buried in the crystalline basement rock at a depth of 500 metres.
Tunnels and shafts leading to the disposal site are to be backfilled with bentonite – which swells to form a waterproof barrier – preventing groundwater from circulating through the waste and escaping.
SKB revealed to IM that the repository will be consuming around 20 tpd bentonite.
Jimmy Larsson-Hagberg, press relations manager for SKB, told IM: “The [bentonite] buffer is one of the primary barriers in the repository. About 20 tonnes of bentonite is needed for each waste canister. Since...