Webcast of final presentation

International peer review

In order to get an international perspective, Sweden has requested that OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) perform an independent review of the parts of SKB’s (the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company) applications covering long-term radiation safety as well as the selection of site and method. The review by the NEA will supplement the Authority’s review and serve as key input for the municipalities involved as well as other interested parties.

The NEA is a forum for international co-operation for matters relating to nuclear power and nuclear waste. This forum has representatives from 29 of the most developed industrialised countries. The NEA has the important task of supporting the work of governments and their specialists for a common understanding of the knowledge situation in terms of radioactive waste management and for promoting progress in this field.

Over the years, the NEA has organised more than 15 peer reviews of national safety analysis reports regarding disposal of spent nuclear fuel in several member countries. Previous international peer reviews conducted by the NEA in Sweden include:

1980s: Peer review of the KBS-3 report, SKB’s first complete safety analysis report for the KBS-3 method, as assigned by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI)
1990s: Peer review of SKI’s own two safety analyses for a KBS-3 repository, ‘Project-90’ and SKI’s ‘SITE-94’ as assigned by SKI
1990s: Peer review of SKB’s updated safety analysis report, SR 97, as assigned by SKI and SSI (the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority)

Guidelines regarding conflicts of interest and competence

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has stipulated the general requirements imposed in terms of competence and conflicts of interest that the Authority is of the view that the NEA should take into consideration when selecting its experts. This ambition is based on the Authority’s policy on conflicts of interest when engaging external consultants and is formulated in the document ‘Terms of Reference’ as agreed between the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and the NEA.

The Terms of Reference state that the NEA is to report to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority if present or future circumstances may put into question the experts’ independence in relation to SKB or Posiva, Finland’s nuclear waste management company.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority cannot directly influence the selection of experts as this is an independent international peer review. The review is being financed by Sweden.

The process of the international peer review

The review organised by the NEA will take one year and started in May 2011. The team of experts began by reviewing the material and has forwarded two sets of questions to SKB for written responses. In December, the team of experts will hold a hearing with SKB. Then they will write their final report, which in the summer of 2012 will be presented during meetings held in Sweden with the parties concerned, such as the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, the municipal authorities of Östhammar and Oskarshamn, SKB and environmental organisations. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority will announce and publish the results of the review on its website when the review has been completed.

The international review team that has commenced its work and will review the safety analysis report for SKB’s repository application consists of ten international specialists. These specialists represent academia, the nuclear power industry, regulatory authorities, research institutes, special interest groups and international bodies and are from Europe, Japan and North America. The team is led by Michael Sailer of the Oeko-Institut, which is an independent German research institute for applied ecology.

An international peer review of the SKB license-application study of March 2011 (Final report)