The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) has recently submitted a license application for the construction of a spent fuel encapsulation plant. SKB plans to submit a further license application in 2009 for the construction of a repository for the disposal spent nuclear fuel. In connection with the first of these applications, SKB published a safety report, known as SR-Can, which assessed the safety of a spent-fuel repository. A further safety report, SR-Site, will be published as an essential component of the license application for the spent fuel repository.
The Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI) and the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority (SSI) (the Authorities) will make formal reviews of the licence applications, and have, therefore, jointly commissioned a team of independent experts to assess and provide comments on SKB’s safety reports. The Authorities will consider the views of the independent review team in completing their own reviews. The first task of the independent expert team is to review SR-Can and, in so doing, prepare for the review of SR-Site.