Action to Comment on Nuclear Waste Storage Decision in Stockholm

Greenpeace Nordic activists demonstrate with “leaking nuclear barrels” outside Rosenbad in Stockholm in advance of the announcement of the Swedish government's decision on a final repository for radioactive waste from Swedish nuclear power plants.
Sweden's largest environmental issue ever is about the future of the highly radioactive waste from Swedish nuclear power plants, and several independent scientists question if the proposed method works and can guarantee a risk-free environment for 100,000 years.

The method proposed so far is that the waste should be stored in copper capsules that are buried in rock chambers 500 meters underground and filled with bentonite clay. However, several researchers and experts in corrosion science have shown that the copper capsules risk corroding much faster than foreseen and will start leaking much earlier than presumed by the nuclear industry, and there is no scientific evidence that proves that the method is safe.

"It is irresponsible of the government to go ahead with a method that has been proposed by the nuclear power industry and strongly questioned by independent researchers. We owe it to future generations a safe storage of the radioactive nuclear waste that Swedish nuclear power produces", says Rolf Lindahl, spokesperson from Greenpeace.