RD&D-Programme 98 Treatment and final disposal of nuclear waste Programme for research, development and demonstration of encapsulation and geological disposal

During the next few years, SKB will add the results of county studies and additional feasibility studies to the background data for siting of the deep repository. We plan to be able to choose at least two sites for site investigations in 2001. The investigations, which will include test drillings, should be able to be started in 2002. An important milestone will thereby be passed in the siting work.<br/><br/>The technology for deep disposal will be tested on full scale at our laboratories in Oskarshamn. At the Canister Laboratory, which will be commissioned in the autumn of 1998, SKB will further refine the technology for sealing copper canisters and verifying their quality. At the Äspö HRL (Hard Rock Laboratory), we will develop and test the technology for handling and depositing canisters, backfilling deposition tunnels, and even retrieving deposited canisters. All of this will be carried out on full scale and in a realistic environment, but without radioactive material in the canisters.<br/><br/>A new safety assessment, SR 97, will be completed in 1999 and then subjected to international scrutiny in accordance with a Government decision. When SKB then receives data from the investigation sites, the safety assessment will be updated and deepened. The research will be focused on the needs of the safety assessment and on providing a basis for following and judging the development of alternative methods such as transmutation.<br/>