Sweden’s nuclear regulator SSM has supported an application to expand and continue the operations of an existing repository for short-lived radioactive waste at Forsmark on the country’s eastern coast.

The government still has to take the final decision on the application for the repository near the Forsmark nuclear station. The repository is run by Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management (SKB) and stores low- and medium-level radioactive waste.

SKB plans to expand the existing facility to receive demolition waste from the decommissioning of nuclear plants in Sweden.

The company said the facility houses about 63,000 cubic metres of operational waste and is 60% full. Space is needed for a further 117,000 cubic metres.

The plan is to extend the repository with six new rock vaults with a length of 240–275 metres so that it will be about three times larger than it is today.

The facility started operating in 1988 and was then the first of its kind in the world.

Most of the waste deposited in the facility comes from the operations of Swedish nuclear power plants, but also includes radioactive waste from hospitals, veterinary medicine, research and industry.