Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     The new Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) report on knowledge preservation for spent nuclear fuel disposal continued, “The issue of information and knowledge preservation should not only be seen as a technical issue but from a broader perspective; one societal challenge where technological development interacts with organizational, social and cultural aspects. Social and cultural aspects can have greater potential to bring to life the memory of a final repository far into the future than technical solutions can allow. It is therefore important that the issue of information and knowledge preservation continues to integrate expertise from many different fields of science and to create platforms where nature-society and humanities can be met with the intention of increasing knowledge of how a complex message should be able to be passed on into the future.”
      Annika Bratt is co-author of the SSM report. “It is about preserving information for future generations so that they have the opportunity to, for example, take back the deposited nuclear waste in a radiation-safe way, should it become relevant. It is an extensive task that extends over long periods of time. At the same time, the work needs to start now.”
     Carl-Henrik Pettersson is also co-author of the report. He says that the public has great interest in the question of the right solution for the problem of knowledge preservation. He also said, “However, there is no unique solution for how information and knowledge preservation should take place, but it is about implementing different methods that complement each other in different ways and thus provide good opportunities for information and knowledge to be passed on into the future.”
     In the future, SSM believes that the issue is also relevant for other activities which generate long-lived hazardous waste. There is a need for broad cooperation with other authorities. SSM says that it is also important that municipalities concerned are given good opportunities to participate in the continued work.
     Bratt says, “The municipalities have a specific role in that it is in the municipalities that the local community involvement exists. The municipalities can contribute to the practical and concrete work needed to disseminate and pass on information and knowledge.”
     Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) is a Swedish radioactive waste management company. It has submitted applications to construct Sweden’s first nuclear fuel repository and an encapsulation plant to SSM in March 2011. The integrated facility which includes the encapsulation plant and the Clab interim storage facility at Oskarshamn is referred to in the SKB application as Clink. The application concerns the disposal of six thousand capsules with a total of twelve thousand tons of radioactive waste at a depth of about five hundred meters. SKB also filed an application to extend the storage capacity of the Clab facility from the current eight thousand tons of spent fuel to eleven thousand tons.
    In August, the Swedish government announced its decision to approve an expansion of the existing Clab interim repository for used fuel while continuing to consider the application for a final repository.