KBS-3
KBS-3 (an abbreviation of kärnbränslesäkerhet, nuclear fuel safety) is a technology for disposal of high-level radioactive waste developed in Sweden by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) by appointment from Statens Strålskyddsinstitut (the government's radiation protection agency).
The disposal method consists of the following steps:[1]
- The waste is first stored in intermediate storage for 30 years.
- The waste is encapsulated in iron.
- The iron capsule is encapsulated in copper (CuOFP alloy).
- The capsule is deposited in a layer of bentonite clay, in a circular hole, 8 meters deep and with a diameter of 2 meters, drilled in a cave 500 metres down into crystalline rock.
- After the storage facility is full, the drill hole is sealed and the site marked.
- After 100,000 years (note 1) of storage, the radioactivity level of the waste is at the same level as that of uranium ore mined to make the fuel.
The first facility using this method will be located in Östhammar, Sweden. The location was selected in 2009 as part of a multi-year competition with the towns of Forsmark and Oskarshamn.[2][3] The facility will have space for 6000 capsules and the plan is to deposit 200 capsules in the storage annually. The technology was developed by studying different natural storage facilities such as the natural reactor in Oklo in Gabon and the uranium mine in Cigar Lake, Canada.
If the holes into the rock from the cave are drilled vertically, the method is called KBS-3V and if they are drilled horizontally it is called KBS-3H. The only method considered so far is KBS-3V.
Note 1. Benedict, Pigford and Levi[4] show data (Figure 11.2) indicating that enriched fuel from a light water reactor, subjected to a typical burnup regime will be no more radioactive than the ore from which it was mined, after a period of about six hundred years.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "The KBS-3 Method - SKB". http://www.skb.se/templates/SKBPage____8762.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
- ^ Sam Knight (2009-09-18). "How 2 Swedish towns vied for nuclear waste". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e8ea6602-a322-11de-ba74-00144feabdc0.html. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
- ^ "Finding a site - SKB". http://www.skb.se/templates/SKBPage____8733.aspx. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
- ^ Manson Benedict, Thomas H. Pigford, Hans Levi "Nuclear Chemical Engineering" McGraw-Hill, Toronto, 1981. ISBN 0-07-004531-3
[edit] External links
- Djupförvarets barriärer (in Swedish)
- Final repository (same as above, but in English)
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