By the year 2023, if everything goes according to plan, the intensive construction phase for the final repository for spent nuclear fuel will be giving way to the operational phase. Work is underway to fine tune operations and secure routines and technology.
When the government has granted permission for a pilot run, then operations can finally begin. When operations are then up to capacity, an average of one canister of spent nuclear fuel per day will be transported through the five kilometre long serpentine tunnel and on into a deposition tunnel.
Important protection from radiation
The disposal itself is done with specially built machines that can be remotely controlled with great precision. But if anything unforeseen happens it must be possible for the operators to repair the machines. Protection from radiation is very important.
New tunnels will be excavated in parallel with the start up of deposition in the completed tunnels. This will continue for about 40 years until all nuclear fuel has been disposed of. The repository is then sealed. Geologists will continue throughout the operational phase to map out the rock and plan for new tunnels.
When the Nuclear Fuel Repository is in full operations there will be approximately 250 persons working there, half of whom above and half below ground level. Operational personnel will work with everything from research to safety management and cleaning.
Nuclear Fuel Repository in brief
The canisters with the spent nuclear fuel will be finally disposed of in the Nuclear Fuel Repository. The facility consists of an underground and a ground level part. The ground level facility occupies approximately 15 hectares. It includes industrial premises, offices and a rock store where rock that has been excavated is handled.
A long tunnel and several shafts descend at a depth of approximately 500 metres from the ground level facility into a system of deposition tunnels. A number of vertical holes where the copper canisters with the spent nuclear fuel are placed are drilled in each deposition tunnel. The tunnel system is successively extended during the operational phase of the facility.
When it is fully constructed, the facility will have approximately 50 kilometres of tunnels.