SKB manages and operates the project. It is intended to be the final storage area for all the operational low- and medium-level nuclear waste (90,000 cubic meters) from the 12 nuclear reactors in Sweden. "Operational" waste is ion exchange resins, cloths, tools, etc. In addition, SKB intends to store medical and industrial radioactive waste in SFR-1. SKB plans to build SFR-2 and SFR-3 to hold other wastes such as nuclear reactor core components and parts of the reactor buildings. Applications to construct SFR-2 and SFR-3 have not yet been made.
Following are some facts about SFR-1:
Opposition to SFR-1 by local people began in 1982. However, it wasn't until July 1987 that the Action Group Against SFR-1 was formed (37). Twelve members of the Action Group occupied SFR-1 on July 31, 1987. The group ranged in age from 15 to 62. They went along on a guided bus tour, and when the bus stopped underground for "sightseeing", the protestors refused to get back on the bus (38).
Among the reasons for the protest was the fact that the nuclear industry is distributing false and misleading information about SFR-1. In their statements to the mass media the protestors focused on the false "common agricultural soil" analogy noted above, and on the fact that the radioactivity will eventually leak out into the Baltic Sea.
After about three hours, and having painted radioactive warning symbols on the underground tunnel walls, the protesters were arrested, taken to a local police station and released after questioning. Some months later, the Action Group was found guilty and fined for "painting the inside of a garbage can", as one of those arrested put it (39). SKB quickly removed from circulation the offending brochure containing the agricultural soil analogy and within a couple of months printed a new brochure with a revised analogy.
The Swedish Licensing Board For Environmental Protection approved SFR-1 in mid-September 1987. The decision was appealed in October by 60 local residents on the Island of Gräsö, separated by only ten km of sea water from the Forsmark reactors and SFR-1. It is the Gräsö peoples' position that the Licensing Board has approved a slow, long-term leakage of radioactivity into the Baltic Sea, which is inconsistent with the Baltic Sea Convention and Swedish environmental policy (40). This appeal was not accepted by the Government.
On March 30, 1988, SSI granted the last regulatory approval needed for nuclear waste to be put down in SFR-1. SKI gave its final approval March 24. This triggered a new campaign of civil disobedience by people opposed to SFR. On March 28, a group of 26 protestors were arrested after blocking the road into the SFR site. About half the 50 SFR workers were stopped for about three hours from reaching their work place until the blockade was cleared by the police. A similar action took place with 15 people arrested when the first containers of waste were driven down into SFR-1 on April 27, 1988. Further, three of the 15 returned to be arrested again after managing to pass security guards and lay in front of the waste truck as it moved towards the entrance to the under seabed facility. The Action Group Against SFR intends to maintain its civil disobedience campaign.
Under seabed storage of low- and medium-level waste does not satisfy the moral and legal responsibility of the nuclear industry. SFR-1 is a gigantic experiment that threatens to pollute the Baltic Sea. SFR-1 is in fact a form of delayed sea dumping and is against the Baltic Sea Convention. A storage facility should be controllable so that it is possible to move the waste and definitely stop the spread of radioactivity. The Government must conduct an independent investigation of a storage area on land, where the barriers can be reinforced even after sealing.
Operation of SFR-1 will be a death blow to the local area. The contamination will never go away. Still, a number of nations have shown an interest in adopting the SFR system. Sweden must not export this technique of delayed sea dumping to other countries.