Public hearings were held in the Swedish municipalities of Östhammar, Tierp and Älvkarleby, Hultsfred and Oskarshamn and in Nyköping in February of 2001. The municipalities had taken part in feasibility studies, conducted by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. (SKB), in the previous years. The hearings were organised by the Swedish regulatory authorities, i.e. the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) and the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) and aimed at complementing the authorities’ reviews of SKB’s work and plans.

This report is part of the research project International Socio-Technical Challenges for Implementing Geological Disposal: InSOTEC (see www.insotec.eu), funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme. This report is a contribution to Work Package 1 of the project, which aims to identify the most significant socio-technical challenges related to geological disposal of radioactive waste. To achieve this objective, a comparative analysis of 14 national programmes will be performed.

In RD&D-Programme 92, SKB presented a partially new strategy for its activities. The new strategy entailed a focusing and concentration on the implementation of deep disposal of a limited quantity (about 800 tonnes) of encapsulated spent nuclear fuel during the coming 20-year period. Following this initial deposition, the results of the work will be evaluated, and only then will a decision be taken as to how and when regular deposition of the main body of the fuel and other long-lived nuclear waste will take place.

SKB has selected Forsmark as the site for the final repository for spent nuclear fuel. The site selection<br/>is the end result of an extensive siting process that began in the early 1990s. The strategy and<br/>plan for the work was based on experience from investigations and development work over a period<br/>of more than ten years prior to then.<br/>This document describes the siting work and SKB’s choice of site for the final repository.

This report focuses on public meetings as a vehicle for public participation in nuclear waste management. The nature of public meetings is reviewed and the functions served by meetings highlighted. The range of participants and their concerns are addressed, including a review of the participants from past nuclear waste management meetings. A sound understanding of the expected participants allows DOE to tailor elements of the meeting, such as notification, format, and agenda to accommodate the attendees.

The foundation for work related to nuclear waste management is laid by laws and outlines e.g. the responsibilities of the reactor owners and the state, as represented by the authorities. The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB), as well as Posiva Oy in Finland, were set up by the reactor owners in the respective countries in response to the responsibilities of planning, conducting research and to implement the physical structures leading to a safe management of nuclear wastes.

The purpose of this report is a comparison of the structures for nuclear waste management in France, Sweden and UK. The source materials for this comparison are studies carried out in each of these countries by Syncho Ltd. over the past 5 years. The Swedish structural review was sponsored by SKI and SSI, and carried out as a pilot study during the years 1996 and 1997 (Espejo & Gill, 1998) as part of the RISCOM I project.