Science Show

50% of electricity in Sweden comes from nuclear power. The other half comes from hydro. Claes Thegerström describes the challenges and process by which Sweden developed nuclear power. Despite a referendum in 1980, after the Three Mile Island accident, where Swedes agreed to phase out nuclear power, the decision changed, when it was seen the referendum decision was obsolete. Now Sweden has a mix of electricity sources including 10 nuclear reactors.

Transcript

Robyn Williams: Finally from the AAAS in San Diego another matter of trust; nuclear power. This is Claes Thegerström, the head of the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company.

Claes Thegerström: In Sweden we have about 50% of our electricity coming from nuclear energy, and the rest is coming from hydro power, and we have had it like that since the 1980s. We also had a very strong debate about nuclear in Sweden in the 1980s, actually a referendum deciding to phase out nuclear by 2010. That will not happen; we will continue to run our reactors.

In the 1980s we established a system for interim storage of spent fuel at a centralised facility that is in operation since 1985, and we made a final repository for the low-level waste. So that system is in operation since several decades. Now we also at that time started the development of the elements needed for disposal and long-term safe management of the high-level waste and spent fuel, and basically there are three components needed. You need a site, you need a technical concept and you need the social acceptance of your proposals. We worked on all those three lines since the 1980s, and we are now happy to see that we have come to this stage after 25 years of work that we have selected a site, the Forsmark site, about 100 kilometres north of Stockholm. We announced that in June of last year, that will be the site where we want to construct our final repository for high-level spent fuel.

We have developed the technical concept to demonstration in full scale laboratories since about ten years ago. And we have worked hard with the social acceptance part of it. And actually at the site where we want to build our repository at this moment we have about 80% of the population being in favour of having a repository. Actually there were two municipalities, both wanting to be the one selected, and we had actually to make some measures to keep them happy, even though they didn't get a repository. So it's maybe a little bit of a different situation from many other countries.

We will provide the application for our repository by the end of this year, 2010, and possibly then it might be the first licence application to be tested by the safety authorities in the world, and we hope to have the licence in about four to five years to start construction of the repository.

The important challenges are to keep the high scientific level of the program and to do the very important step to go from technical demonstration in laboratories to industrial reality of disposal. That's the next challenge for our program. Thank you.

Robyn Williams: Going back to the referendum, when was it and what was decided?

Claes Thegerström: The referendum was in 1980 after the TMI accident.

Robyn Williams: Three Mile Island?

Claes Thegerström: Three Mile Island, that's right.

Robyn Williams: And Swedes decided that they were going to phase out nuclear power by 2010. It's now 2010, what's happened?

Claes Thegerström: For maybe 10 or 15 years that was the official policy. Then gradually politicians realised that this was simply not realistic. To phase out 50% of the production of electricity was simply not possible, and gradually they changed this decision and gradually it just became obsolete.

Robyn Williams: And the public changed its mind as well?

Claes Thegerström: Yes. Of course after Chernobyl there were a few years of very anti-nuclear atmosphere, but then gradually there was a change and maybe one important thing was that two rectors were closed, reactors close to Copenhagen. They were phased out. That made the media showing what's happening when you phase out, there were difficulties in the south with the electricity, and the electricity that had come from these reactors were imported from coal-power plants in Denmark instead. So people became aware of the back-side of phasing nuclear, and I think that had an influence also.

Robyn Williams: Some people in Sweden think that the nuclear power is in fact green, is that right?

Claes Thegerström: It may be too strong a word, but more and more people I think realise that you need to have a mix, you need to have a set of different options, and of course the focus on global warming has made a bit of a better situation for nuclear because the carbon dioxide emissions are simply not there.

Robyn Williams: What sort of nuclear power are you going in for? Is it looking at the fourth generation of nuclear power stations, which is a bit way off but nonetheless promising?

Claes Thegerström: No, not really. I mean, we have these ten reactors operating. What has happened is that the lifetime has been extended. They have also been upgraded. So we have upgraded or are planning to upgrade these ten existing reactors with more capacity than was shut down in the two reactors that were taken out of operation. Now there is a change of the law so that it will not any more be prohibited to licence new reactors in replacement of old ones. So there are still limitations on what to do, and it remains to be seen if the financing will come up for new reactors. Maybe in the next five years or so there will be an application, but today there are no applications being planned.

Robyn Williams: Thank you very much.

Claes Thegerström: Thank you.

Robyn Williams: Claes Thegerström is CEO of Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company.

Guests

Claes Thegerström
CEO SKB Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste
http://www.skb.se/default____24417.aspx

Presenter

Robyn Williams

Producer

David Fisher

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