Nagra has a precise overview of Switzerland’s radioactive waste volumes. It must already know today how much waste will eventually be disposed of in a deep geological repository and what properties the respective waste types will have. With this information, Nagra can plan a sufficiently large repository and provide solid data for safety analyses.
To keep track of the required information, Nagra maintains an inventory using the so-called MIRAM database: “Model Inventory for Radioactive Materials”. MIRAM comprises the waste that exists today and a projection of future waste generation.
The database is periodically updated and reviewed. It also provides information on the different waste types. This categorisation is in line with international practice and is based on the physical properties of the waste.
High-level waste
The Swiss nuclear power plants will produce a total of around 1,500 cubic metres of high-level waste over their operating lifetime. This volume corresponds to the scenario of a 60-year operating lifetime for the deep geological disposal. as well as 47 years of power generation for the Mühleberg nuclear power plant. These 1,500 cubic metres of high-level waste are made up of around 1,400 cubic metres of spent fuel assemblies and a little over 100 cubic metres of high-level waste from reprocessing.
The two types of high-level waste will later be packaged in disposal canisters for deep geological disposal. As a result, the waste volume will increase from 1,500 cubic metres to around 9,300 cubic metres, which corresponds roughly to the size of eight single-family homes.
Low- and intermediate-level waste
Most of Switzerland’s radioactive waste is low- and intermediate-level waste. This waste is primarily produced in nuclear power plants: as operational waste and as decommissioning waste. Slightly over one fifth of low- and intermediate-level waste is produced in the areas of medicine, industry and research (so-called MIR waste).
Nagra has calculated that the volume of low- and intermediate-level waste will amount to around 43,000 cubic metres. Here, too, the volume increases when the waste is packaged for final disposal: to just below 83,000 cubic metres.
For comparison
The total volume of around 93,000 cubic metres of waste packaged for final disposal (low- and intermediate-level waste as well as high-level waste) would fill just under two thirds of the historic part of the Zürich train station terminal shown in the photograph.
Waste volumes today
Until a deep geological repository has been constructed, Switzerland has sufficient interim storage capacity for all of the radioactive waste arising from the operation and decommissioning of the five nuclear power plants. There is also sufficient interim storage capacity for waste arising from medicine, industry and research.
