(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
With the decommissioning of the Halden reactor, one of Norway's two nuclear reactors, the Norwegian authorities are now taking responsibility for the clean-up of nuclear waste in Norwegian nature. But this work has been pushed forward by the authorities for years; The peace and environmental organizations have waited a similarly long time: “At some point, we will have to clean up after the nuclear activities. We have 17 tonnes of used reactor fuel that needs storage for almost eternity, "said project manager Karl G. Johannesen at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in November during a orientering in the premises of the Department of Energy Technology, IFE, which owns the Halden reactor.
The basement and the Halden reactors
In the Norwegian post-war climate, Norway's two nuclear reactors, Kjeller (1951) and Halden (1958), were built to conduct basic research, with the intention that one day Norway could establish its own nuclear power plant. At that time, the Norwegian Labor Party government believed that nuclear power could be a good and steady source of power.
Towards the end of the 1970s, the Norwegian authorities realized that it would not be appropriate to develop nuclear-based power, but operations continued in both reactors. The research reactor at Kjeller is still in operation, including research in the field of medical purposes. The Halden reactor, on the other hand, was permanently shut down last summer, after a failure of a safety valve was detected during a routine check. During the years the Halden and Kjeller reactors have been operational, 17 tons of high-level nuclear waste have been accumulated.
France – atomic number one
If we compare with two other European countries, Sweden and France, 17 tonnes is still a modest number: "Sweden has 10 reactors, and when they now have to stop producing electricity in this way, they will have as much as 12 tonnes of spent reactor fuel. which must be deposited in a safe way for all time to come, »says physicist and former associate professor Eva Fidjestøl (000) to Ny Tid. She has spent much of her life educating about the consequences of nuclear power. Fidjestøl sits on the board of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom, IKFF, and is a member of No to Nuclear Weapons.
"A landfill for spent reactor fuel is now being built 500 meters below a village north of Paris."
In Finland, a new reactor is planned to be built in Pyhäjoki, a municipality near Oulu, in the north of the country. The development is a Finnish-Russian cooperation. The resistance to this reactor is great, also on the Swedish side, including from the Kärnkraftsfritt Bottenviken group. The involvement has so far resulted in 21 Swedish municipalities north of Sundsvall having withdrawn from the construction of the reactor. The Finnish government will decide in 2019 whether it will be implemented.
The three countries that currently have the most reactors are the United States, France and China. France produces as much as 71,6 percent of all its nuclear reactor electricity.
"The United States may have more reactors, but per capita France is at the top. The country has 58. In France, they have 100 cubic meters of spent nuclear fuel that must be stored, "says Fidjestøl. “Today, nuclear power is priced out; it can no longer compete in the market. Solar and wind power are much cheaper, faster to produce and require smaller plants. In democratic countries, new nuclear power plants are rarely built today, "she continues, referring to the report" World Nuclear Industry Status Report 000 ", written by independent consultant Mycle Schneider. He annually publishes a status report on the situation in all nuclear plants and reactors in the world. (See www.worldnuclearreport.org.)
Concerned on behalf of the French
"A spent reactor fuel landfill is being built 500 meters below a village north of Paris. The construction period and the time it takes to fill the landfill are estimated at 130 years, ”says Fidjestøl. Concerned on behalf of the French, she says that a nuclear plant or reactor has a certain life span and should not be operated for more than 30-40 years.
In December, Macron decided that 14 reactors should be closed by 2035. That's too few, she believes. When Macron became president in 2017, he was asked why he could not "here and now" set a target for phasing out nuclear operations and replacing it with 100 percent renewable energy. He then stated that this would have given Areva and Europe's largest energy company, Eléctricité de France (EDF), major problems with financing further operations. Areva, now known as Orano, is a French multinational company specializing in nuclear operations. "At the same moment someone with authority says, 'My goal is to run the business,' it's over. Nobody wants to invest in them again, ”Macron said.
Like Norwegian politicians, the French politicians have also pushed the problem of nuclear waste ahead, but some politicians go a little further than the others. When Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot resigned in August, one of the reasons must have been that France did nothing about the spent nuclear fuel.
Big tasks for a new body
Failure to store nuclear waste has long been a theme of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom (IKFF), which in 2012 published the e-book Woman's look at nuclear energy. "We have focused on the storage of nuclear waste as a major environmental problem, and no country today has found safe arrangements for this storage. This is an economic bomb and an environmental bomb, "emphasized Liss Schanke – one of the organization's leaders – in a conversation with Ny Tid during the Globalization Conference in Oslo in October.
"We have focused on nuclear waste storage as a major environmental problem, and no countries as of today have found secure schemes for this storage."
Among other things, she highlighted the Chernobyl Day, the memory of the nuclear accident in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, as one measure IKFF arranges with other environmental organizations. Radioactive substances are still found in Norwegian nature as a result of this disaster. In November, representatives from IKFF, together with several peace and environmental organizations, were invited by the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries to Halden for information on the Norwegian clean-up process. In 2016, Business Minister Monica Mæland (H) stated that the state also has a co-responsibility for the long-term storage of nuclear waste, together with IFE.
"The state has been heavily involved in the nuclear project in Norway and has therefore taken a co-financing responsibility in this area on a moral and societal basis," explains project manager Karl G. Johannesen in the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries. He adds that it is not only IFE and Kjeller who deliver radioactive waste in Norway, but also the Armed Forces, the health service and the industry. Low and medium active waste is currently stored in Himdalen in Akershus.
Looking for landfills
In this year's state budget, NOK 280,4 million has been set aside for the clean-up, but the total clean-up of the 17 tonnes of nuclear waste contained on Norwegian soil was estimated at 14,5 billion in 2016. Of this, NOK 12,8 billion is costs to handling and storage of spent reactor fuel. The new agency, Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning, was established at the start of 2018. In November, Nils Bøhmer was hired as Head of Research and Development Bøhmer has previously worked in Bellona, and has been an outspoken critic of the Norwegian authorities' handling of the nuclear waste issue.
Together with the rest of the NND, Bohemia has been given a number of "impossible" tasks in the lap, and one of them is to look for more and suitable landfills in Norway. A landfill must be deep geologically safe for hundreds of thousands of years. The waste should not come into contact with air, water or the environment and withstand any new ice age. It should be stored 500 meters below the ground. In addition, a place must be stored where the residents can accept to have such a landfill on their perimeter.
Lack of professionals
Fiji is happy that Bohemia and NND are in place. “Now it's a body that takes responsibility. We have been waiting for that for many years, and in other countries such bodies already exist, ”she points out. “The next thing is to get long-term funding in place, so that you do not fight for elderly care and kindergartens because people do not understand the joke of this work. One must also not go too fast, but map the needs well and keep the good people. In all countries there is a shortage of good people in this area. It's not so exciting to downsize, and the work is risky. "
Major and complex challenges await those involved in the cleanup process. The biggest challenge will be finding suitable landfills that are safe for thousands of years to come, and not least: a benevolent neighborhood.
Also read: When the enemy is an apple tree in bloom, about how to understand an enemy we cannot see.
