On June 3, the Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG, organized an international seminar with experts, invited to speak about the alternative method deep boreholes and the German nuclear waste situation.
On the afternoon of June 3, The Swedish NGO Office for Nuclear Waste Review, MKG, organized an open international seminar in Stockholm on deep boreholes and the German nuclear waste situation. The seminar was broadcasted on the internet and is still available online. Below you will find links to the broadcast and to the speakers’ presentations, which may aid in following the presentations.
Fergus Gibb, professor emeritus at the University of Sheffield, UK, gave the afternoon a flying start by giving his lecture “Deep borehole: a 21st century solution for high-level radioactive waste”. Gibb is one of those who have been working the longest on examining the prerequisites for enabling deep boreholes as a method for disposing spent nuclear fuel. In writing his latest article published in April this year, Gibb cooperated with the English expert on drilling technique John Beswick. Gibb’s employer, the University of Sheffield, is also involved in the development of deep boreholes as a final repository through the consortium created by the public Sandia National Laboratory, in the U.S. The alternative method deep borehole is a hot topic of debate in the ongoing trial of the nuclear waste company SKB’s application to build a final repository for spent nuclear fuel. However, the company does not wish to consider the method to be a viable alternative, despite demands from the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority as well as from others of the body of referral to produce comprehensive comparisons between the two. According to Gibb, the technique needed to drill the holes and to deposit the payload in a safe way is now available, that is to say: no further research is needed. The only thing needed is someone who is willing to pay for the actual drilling, which in the U.S. will be the case within the next couple of years.
During the second part of the seminar, Beate Kallenbach from the Økoinstitut of Germany gave a speech called: ”Radioactive waste management in Germany: Recent developments based on lessons learnt”. Kallenbach is the head of the esteemed German research institute Økoinstitut, working on issues related to nuclear technology. She has extensive experience working with nuclear waste and she is a member of the commission for the handling of nuclear waste (ESK), created by the German Ministry of the Environment. Kallenbach is also the author of the chapter on Germany in the report on final disposal of spent nuclear fuel, published by the International Panel on Fissile Material, IPFM. For instance, the head of MKG wrote the chapter on Sweden. Below you will find links to the chapters. During the seminar Beate gave a brief description of Germany’s nuclear history and what facilities exist today, in terms of low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. She also gave a good description of recent developments, speaking of a “restart” in the movement of finding solutions to the issue of disposing high-level radioactive waste. The main reason for this being possible is the decision of phasing out nuclear power in Germany.
Links:
[img_assist|nid=1029|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=22|height=18]Presentation om djupa borrhål av Fergus Gibb >>
[img_assist|nid=1029|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=22|height=18]Presentation om den tyska kärnavfallssituationen av Beate Kallenbach >>
Seminariet webbsändes och finns tillgänglig att se i efterhand på:
[img_assist|nid=1608|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=100]www.bambuser.se/channel/MKGlive >>
(tyvärr är ljudet dåligt de första minuterna i Fergus Gibbs dragning, se mer info i klippets chatt-ruta)
