Lithuania considers options for nuclear waste disposal

- Lithuania is looking for the best option to dispose of spent nuclear fuel after the decommissioning of its Ignalina nuclear power plant, a Lithuanian daily has said.

The paper said Lithuania was considering three options: to bury the waste inside the country, to transport it abroad or build a regional repository in cooperation with neighbouring countries, all options being expensive and complicated.

The following is an excerpt from a report by Saulius Chadasevicius entitled "Headache - nuclear repository" published in the Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Rytas (subheadings as published)

Specialists look for answers

Lithuania has resumed discussions about the future of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. MP Kazimiera Prunskiene told President Rolandas Paksas on Friday [16 January] that a survey, which is about to be completed, confirmed the possibility to continue with nuclear energy in Lithuania.

Meanwhile, another group of specialists is investigating how Lithuania could not only temporarily store nuclear waste but also bury it for thousands of years to come. A study on the possibilities of building a nuclear waste repository is being carried out with the help of Swedish consultants. When completed, this study should answer where, how and at what price Lithuania could safely bury dangerous nuclear waste. "We have to know what possibilities exist in Lithuania, but we will also consider and negotiate other options about where to put spent fuel," said Dainius Janenas, head of the Radioactive Waste Management Agency [RATA].

The research will be completed and a report submitted in 2007.

Three options under discussion

Temporarily, but no longer than for 50-60 years, spent fuel could be stored in the storage facilities of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. Lithuania has to know for certain how this waste will be disposed of afterwards. Currently, three options are under consideration: the waste could be buried in Lithuania, transported to other states or Lithuania could cooperate with other countries and build a regional repository.

"All of these options are highly complicated," said Stasys Motiejunas, head of the radioactive fuel disposal division of RATA.

Export is no easy option

Motiejunas said that the decision about the disposal of radioactive waste should be based not only on financial but also scientific, political and social arguments.

"It seems an attractive option to transport the waste abroad. The larger part of the nation naively thinks that this is the only way to proceed. However, if some state accepts this waste, it will cost us enormous amounts of money.

Second, not all states are trustworthy," Motiejunas said. He said he doubted whether, for instance, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were capable of properly storing nuclear waste. It is also risky to export it to the states which could use it to develop nuclear bombs.

Motiejunas said he was surprised by the talks of some politicians that, when the Ignalina power plant is decommissioned, a new nuclear power plant should be built in Lithuania.

"Only when we know where and how we will bury nuclear waste can we think about the future development of atomic energy," he said.

Philosophical questions

Motiejunas said the question whether it would be safe to bury spent radioactive waste in Lithuania was a philosophical one. "We do not know what can happen in 700,000 years - this is how much it takes for radioactive substances to lose their dangerous qualities," he said. There can be more of such philosophical questions in discussions about the disposal of nuclear waste.

"For instance, what language should we use to leave a message for future generations about buried nuclear waste?" asked Motiejunas rhetorically.

Site of repository undisclosed

For several years now, our specialists have been consulted by Scandinavian experts about how radioactive waste could be buried in Lithuania.

Lithuanians have been working with a consortium of three companies - the SKB, SWECO International and Westinghouse Atom. Until 2003, it was funded by the Swedish government.

Last year, 300,000 litas [100,000 dollars] was taken from the Ignalina power plant decommissioning fund for research purposes. This year, the Swedes plan to stop financing Lithuania; thus, local financial sources will have to be sought. Geologists say that, as they are surveying the suitability of land strata for burying chemicals, they are not yet considering any specific part of the country.

Even when such a site is chosen, information about it will be kept secret until the very last minute.

Repository deep underground

Repositories for spent fuel and other radioactive materials are set up by drilling an approx. 500-metre-deep pit. Containers with the waste are placed at the bottom of such a pit. Specialists say that the final disposal of nuclear waste is a very complicated process.

Waste may be exported

"This is a huge problem which is often ignored due to our weak financial capacities," said the head of the parliamentary Environmental Protection Committee, Social Democrat [member Lithuanian Social Democratic Party] Alfonsas Macaitis when talking about the disposal of radioactive materials. The international community is determined to allocate huge sums to ensure a safe storage of dangerous materials around the world. Macaitis said that he believed the radioactive waste generated at the Ignalina nuclear power plant and other facilities should be transported to foreign countries: "I do not want Lithuania to become a repository of radioactive waste."

Does not know what would cost less

Macaitis said that Lithuania could transport radioactive waste to Russia, Germany or France - these countries have a possibility to process it. What would cost Lithuania less - to bury the waste or transport it abroad? Nobody knows the answer, Macaitis said.

"There are various calculations and we even see some paradoxes. For example, we currently store all waste from the Ignalina nuclear power plant in German-made containers. They cost quite a lot but we pay for them with the money of the international organizations which support Germany. Russian containers are twice as cheap. Russians offer us to buy their containers and promise to take our waste to Russia," he said. "However, only a Western country can be subsidized with this money, not Russia. How can you calculate what is cheaper in this case?"

Decommissioning will cost billions

The representatives of the State Nuclear Safety Inspectorate said that the decommissioning of the Ignalina nuclear power plant could take 30-35 years. Technical operations alone (exclusive of the future social costs and the costs of the disposal of radioactive waste) will amount to approximately 1.1-1.2bn euros at current prices. Taking into account future inflation and the increase of wages up to the EU level, price for the technical work can go up to 2bn euros.

Meanwhile, the Economics Ministry and the Energy Institute said they had calculated that the decommissioning of the plant would in total cost 10.262bn litas. After 2065, another 7.596bn litas will be necessary for the disposal of radioactive waste. The implementation of projects related to the closure of the plant (7.006bn litas) will cost most. A sum of 335.6m litas will be necessary to pay social compensations and 121m litas will be used to support the projects of regional regeneration. Building new thermal power plants and renovating the old ones will cost 3.771bn litas, environmental projects will be allocated 2.057bn litas and the projects to ensure the safety of supplies (the connection of gas and power grids with European systems) will cost 804m litas.

Part of funds accumulated

Lithuania has pledged to close power unit one of Ignalina plant by 2005 and to decommission unit two by 2009 if it gets international support. The Ignalina power plant decommissioning fund already accumulated 206.56m litas. The international decommissioning fund, which is managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has raised 221m euros. This sum has been allocated for various projects related to the closure of the plant.