-Caveat Lector-
Future Nuclear Waste Warning
Sweden Considers Long-Term Dump Note
S T O C K H O L M, Sweden, April 5 � Writing a letter to our descendants 25,000
years in the future may seem like a science fiction plot, but for Mikael Jensen the
puzzle is not far off.
Sweden, with its high environmental standards, is closer than any other country
with the possible exception of Finland to finding a long-term solution for dealing
with nuclear waste. Swedish scientists are designing a deep underground vault where
the waste can cool off, but spent fuel rods can take up to 100,000 years before they
are at levels that occur in nature.
That is why Jensen, a physicist at Sweden�s Radiation Protection Authority SSI,
needs to think about a �Do not disturb� warning readable thousands of years from now
to keep anyone from entering the deadly cavern.
It has to be ominous enough to scare people away and keep anyone from thinking it
hides a valuable treasure. But language may be completely changed by then or orderly
society may cease to exist, wiped out by war, disease or a meteorite.
Not Too Smart But Smart Enough?
�People speculate that if society is at a high level they will understand everything.
If society is at a low level they will not drill (into the vault) � nothing will
happen,� he said. �But if something happens and we still have the equipment but not
the knowledge, that�s when it gets dangerous.�
Jensen favors both marking the site with a sign and maintaining archives to
explain further to scientists exactly what the location, contents and design of the
repository are. The aim would also be to help scientists, who may have a better method
of dealing with nuclear waste, find the site.
Some of Jensen�s studies included research into the world�s oldest archives, at
the Vatican, where documents have been meticulously preserved for more than 800 years.
But an Ice Age Approaches
�An argument against the archive is that we�re expecting another Ice Age in Sweden
within 10,000 years to cover us in three kilometers (1.8 miles) of ice for tens of
thousands of years,� Jensen told Reuters. A surface marker could include different
degrees of complexity, starting from a primitive danger sign and advancing to the full
scientific formulas describing what is there. There could be plastic chips at
different levels underground to ward off drillers or a dangerous-looking landscape of
spikes.
Scientists will narrow down the choice to one site in Sweden where detailed
research will start in about 10 years. Until then the waste is in medium-term storage
sites where it is safe for at least 70 years unless the sites are upgraded.
The first step in a lengthy process of building a long-term repository is finding
a site. In a referendum on one proposal, residents of the northern city of Mala
decided by a narrow margin not to accept nuclear waste in their backyard.
Greenpeace Says Site Unsafe
Part of the reason for the �no� vote was campaigning by the environmental group
Greenpeace, which says scientists cannot prove a repository is safe and waste should
be kept on the surface to be monitored until a solution can be found.
�Today there is no way to deal with waste safely but in the future there might
be. We cannot apply a wrong solution just because we don�t have one,� Greenpeace
Sweden spokesman Dima Litvinov told Reuters.
If no site is accepted or if no municipality agrees to host the repository, the
existing intermediate storage facility will probably keep the fuel longer.
The new repository would be about 1,600 feet deep and waste would be protected in
steel covered with copper and packed in clay. The canisters would be laid vertically
into rock and the repository sealed.
Eye on Ground-Water
�Besides human intrusion, the ground-water is the only way that contamination can
reach the surface,� said Olle Zellman, head of a lab researching the repository.
Scientists said the design in the copper, chosen because it corrodes slowly, will
keep the canister intact for at least a million years, much longer than the 100,000
years during which contamination from the canisters could be dangerous to humans.
Ground water would slowly fill the repository but because there is no free oxygen
in the bedrock at this depth the copper would not corrode. If some radioactivity did
escape, the bedrock would act as a filter.
After the repository is sealed, no surveillance or maintenance is needed,
although local residents may demand it.
In 1980, with the U.S. Three Mile Island nuclear accident fresh in mind, Swedes
voted to close their atomic power plants. A deadline of 2010 was set, although critics
say the plan is impractical and costly. But this decision will not solve the problem
of what to do with the waste that has accumulated since the reactors were switched on
in 1972.
The issue is stalled in Swedish courts as operators of the nuclear power plants
demand compensation from the government for lost profits, but a decision is expected
within weeks.
Copyright 1999 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Robert F. Tatman
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