Cost Calculations for the Swedish Radioactive Waste Management System

The companies that own nuclear power plants in Sweden are responsible for adopting such measures as are needed in order to manage and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from Swedish nuclear power plants and to dismantle the plants. According to the law, the Financing Act, the reactor owners shall pay a fee on nuclear energy production in order to fulfil this responsibility. The fee is based on a probable cost for waste management for 25 years of operation of all NPPs. Besides paying a fee the reactor owners must also give guarantees as security for remaining costs. Cost increases such as consequences of major changes, disruptions etc. are covered via these guarantees. The calculations are based on the plan for management and disposal of the radioactive waste products that has been prepared by SKB. In order to include the influence of uncertainties and variations a new calculation method has been applied. The uncertainties have been dealt with by means of a statistical weighing-together of their influence on the costs. This method differs from the method used in earlier years when the uncertainties were dealt with as a percentage surcharge on the calculated costs. The result of the calculation is presented as a distribution function indicating the probability associated with a given total cost, i.e. the probability that the calculated cost will prove true. The future costs from 1998 onwards amount to SEK 44.9 billion. The future costs are calculated in January 1997 price level.The fee has been the same, in average SEK 0.019/kWh, for twelve years, between 1985 and 1996. For 1997 the average fee is SEK 0.011/kWh. The reduction of the fee is due to that the fee can be based on a confident cost calculation and due to an increased rate of return on the funded fees.