The Swedish authorities and nuclear industry have addressed the nuclear waste problem with a frightening lack of responsibility. Laws have been violated with the assistance of public and Government authorities. Through agreements, Sweden has become tied up with foreign nuclear weapons interests. Several billions of crowns (hundreds of millions of US$) are missing from the waste fund. Quite unhindered, in order to expand, the nuclear power industry has been allowed to ignore both judicial and scientific laws. In all respects, technically, legally and morally, approval of KBS-1 was disastrous. The KBS-1 method received strong criticism from the impartial expert reviewers. Approval of the "suitable" bedrock was pure fantasy.
Local people, acting on the strength of knowledge and accepting their responsibility in open protests, have been offended by the nuclear power companies through sneak drilling, misinformation and police actions. By tradition, well-founded self-defense rights in cases of immediate danger are built into law. The development of Swedish society has unfortunately rendered the self-defense concept out of date. Many of today's most serious dangers do not threaten single individuals, nor are they triggered instantly. On the contrary, they may very well be unleashed onto future generations. The case of test drilling at Voxna Valley is precisely such a case where rights of civil defense may be invoked.
Acting in a dangerous situation to prevent serious environmental destruction and health injuries must be made acceptable according to written law. The law must be changed because, in a world containing new forms of environmental threats, situations such as at Voxna Valley will continue to arise.
For many people, faith in the credibility of nuclear power companies, elected representatives and Government authorities has ceased to exist. This depressing result after 15 years of maneuvering on the nuclear waste issue can only be reversed by a thorough and unbiased change. Without question, the primary difficulty will be to create a credible body to carry out the necessary investigations and action. In these questions, the environmental and peace organizations represent the public interest only and are unhampered by economic ties. Therefore, they seem to be most suited to suggest persons, experts and organizations suitable to form this body. An important lesson from the KBS affair is that insight and democratic control must be guaranteed. An independent body must be formed to drain the KBS swamp. The model that has been tested to date is the "company model" with boards dominated by politicians in the supervising bodies. This has resulted in shortcomings when pressured by special interests. Thus, the new bodies must be organized in another way.
All people have the right to true and comprehensive information on the nuclear waste problem. Individuals also have the right to draw their own conclusions from the information and then face the responsibility for the growing piles of waste. To date, the nuclear industry, with its huge resources, has almost had a monopoly on information. This bias must be eliminated. Mass movements like the environment and peace movements should be given resources for this task. At the same time it is important to make clear that the environmental movement is not an economic counterpart to the nuclear industry. The environmental movement is independent from economic interests, is working to ensure the survival of life on Earth, and is trying to obtain an optimal treatment of all nuclear waste now in existence.
It is not enough to seek the best possible technical solution if at the same time the public is expected to forget what has already occurred. First, the actions of the various parties must be scrutinized and the KBS project properly evaluated. Only then, can an action plan be evolved in order to examine all different methods of high-level waste storage and to decide upon the best direction possible.
Most basic to being able to take constructive action is to admit immediately that the waste problem is not solved and may never be safely and satisfactorily solved. It is not acceptable to conclude, as the Energy Minister has done, that the nuclear waste problem is currently unsolved and yet still allow the production of more waste. During the legal inquiry into the KBS method, according to the Act On Nuclear Activities, it was claimed that the method was good enough to continue reactor operation, and perhaps in the future "something" better could be found if needed. This unknown "something" then could be the totally acceptable nuclear waste treatment. Thus, the conclusion was made that it is important for the research to continue the way which has been planned. This is irresponsible wishful thinking. Promises about possible solutions in the future cannot be accepted as reasons to allow the waste piles to grow further when there is no solution today.
Further, it must be noted that nuclear weapons are a supreme threat to all life on Earth. No other environmental hazard known has the power of causing such an immediate and total catastrophe. Due to its connection to nuclear weapons via plutonium, spent fuel is the most serious environmental hazard of our time.
The frightening reality is that the world's reactors will be leaving their waste behind in cheap, temporary and wholly insufficient waste storage areas. Inevitably, the radioactive materials in the wastes will leak from many different places in several different ways. Long-lived isotopes will have ample time to spread across the Earth and concentrate in food chains for thousands of years.
Already the living conditions of our descendents are destined to contain radioactivity from the nuclear waste all over the world. If this threatening development is not stopped, the contamination will become much worse. The present conditions in the vicinity of the British reprocessing plant at Sellafield (Windscale) give a small hint of what will happen. There, a nuclear reactor accident in 1957 and operation of the reprocessing plant have resulted in increased cancer among children living nearby, severely increased radioactivity in the Irish Sea and easily measurable quantities of radioactive isotopes in North Sea fish. The nuclear waste problem is thus global and requires a global solution.
Direct sea dumping of radioactive waste was recently stopped. However, the first step towards ending the nuclear threat was taken in the late 1950's when widespread protests about nuclear fallout forced the superpowers U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. to stop atmospheric nuclear tests; though France and China continued into the 1970's and nuclear weapons states continue to carry out underground nuclear weapons tests. Today the struggle is to disarm and to stop nuclear power. The waste piles have to stop growing all over the world - now! Through example and by taking the initiative, Sweden can play an important role by:
Much time, resources, and trustworthiness have been lost by the actions of the Government and nuclear companies. Most of this is unfortunately impossible to regain. But useful lessons have been learned.