The SKB R&D research programme report “Fud-22” is available in English

On September 30, 2022, the nuclear waste company SKB submitted the latest R&D research programme report “Fud-22” to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM). The authority sent out the report for consultation during the autumn of 2022. The report is now available also in English.

The “Fud” R&D programme report must be submitted every three years as a requirement under the Nuclear Technology Act. SSM is reviewing the report that contains planned research and development activities, research results, alternative handling and storage methods and will submit an opinion to the government by March 31, 2023.

SSM sent out the report for broad consultation during the autumn of 2022.

The research program is the first one to be published after the government on January 27, 2022 approved of the nuclear waste company SKB's licence application for a spent nuclear fuel repository in Forsmark. In the decision according to the Environmental Code, the government wrote [page 29, MKG:s translation]:

"Results from future research need to be used so that the safety the repository can be as high as possible. The government therefore wants it to be clear that the research on essential issues, i.e., the durability of the copper canister, will not stop. SKB will have to report the remaining results from the LOT tests, carry out new safety analyses and also conduct further research on copper corrosion within the framework of the R&D program which is drawn up in accordance with §12 of the Nuclear Technology Act, and the step-by-step examination which is a condition for the license according to the Nuclear Technology Act .”

A link to the news about the government decision on the MKG English website can be found below.

MKG and member organisations submitted an opinion in January. The organisations focused on the importance of continued research even after the government approves the nuclear fuel repository, not least on issues important to the long-term integrity of the copper capsule.

Normally, there is also an opinion from the Nuclear Waste Council directly to the government after SSM submits an opinion. As the council was dismantled by the government on December 31, 2022, an opinion was this year submitted before that.

Links to the news about the MKG and council opinions to SSM on the MKG Swedish website can be found below.

The government usually towards the end of the following year, i.e., in this case in December 2023, takes a decision that the research program can be approved and then add conditions.

MKG is of the opinion that it is very important that SSM now makes a major revision in how the review of the R&D reports is carried out compared to before. The government's stress in the decision on the nuclear fuel repository on the importance of continued research on, for example, the long-term integrity of the copper canister means that the authority has been given an extra-large responsibility to ensure that all the necessary research is carried out and that the results obtained can be reviewed in an open and satisfactory manner scientific way. For example, the handling of the last experimental package in the LOT experiment cannot be done as unscientifically by the nuclear waste company for of studies of copper corrosion as happened a few years ago when the two previous packages were taken up. In addition, new tests must be done with copper and clay in an oxygen-free repository-like environment in a way that makes it impossible to try to explain away extensive pitting corrosion with "it's due to residual or in-leaking oxygen".

 

Links:

SKB TR-22-11 RD&D Programme 2022 Programme for research, development and demonstration of methods for the management and disposal of nuclear waste, December 2022 >>

News on MKG's English website about the government's yes to a repository for spent nuclear fuel, 220127 >>

News on the MKG Swedish web site on the MKG and member organisations’ opinion on the Fud-22 R&D programme, 230120 >>

News on the MKG Swedish web site on the opinion of the Swedish Council for Nuclear Waste on the Fud-22 R&D programme, 221229 >>

News on the MKG Swedish web site that SKB has released the Fud-22 R&D programme, 220930 >>