Year
2013
Abstract
The application for a construction licence for a final disposal facility in Finland was submitted to the Finnish Government in December 2012 by the implementing company Posiva. The facility will consist of an encapsulation plant and a geological repository for spent nuclear fuel. STUK will give a full evaluation of the application to the Government by mid-2014. During the evaluation, STUK will review Posiva’s application from the viewpoint of all three S’s. Only after STUK’s acceptance of the application may the license be granted and the construction starts. The safety of final disposal is a fundamental issue. The process and plans presented for the encapsulation plant and the geological repository have been designed primarily with safety in mind. The implementation of security and safeguards must not compromise safety. New challenges appear from the security point of view. To mention some: identifying the vital and inner areas; creating new design basis threat (DBT); identifying interfaces, synergies and challenges between safety, security and safeguards and ensuring information security for a very long time. Possible scenarios for unlawful acts and the need for operational security must be planned well before. A well planned risk analysis must also be established. The safeguards concerns of final disposal are unprecedented. Any re-verification of the spent fuel will be impossible once the fuel is stored and tunnels are backfilled. The whole process has to give a full and final assurance that of the fuel having been stored and emplaced according to declarations and no diversion having been possible. On the regulatory side STUK needs to plan how to implement national and international safeguards in a reliable and cost-effective way. Coordination of safety, security and safeguards is essential for having good regulatory control in the final disposal process, as well as for not generating any extra burdens to the operator. This will be a true 3S by Design -challenge!