Greenwire: While most communities would shun nuclear waste, the town of Östhammar, Sweden, is hoping to secure the rights to host a new nuclear waste dump.

Today, as many as 80 percent of the town’s 21,000 residents support hosting the radioactive waste storage site, but two decades ago, the country voted down the use of nuclear power because 20 percent of Swedes supported it.

Now, however, the Scandinavian nation has started building more reactors. And to build any more power plants, the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., or SKB, must create permanent storage space for the waste.

Eighteen eligible towns vied for the rights and that list is now down to two — Östhammar and Oskarshamn — which both host nuclear plants. If Östhammar is selected, construction on the dump would begin after 2015.

The town has made it this far in the process because of its abundance of solid rock and public approval, which has changed in recent years because of concerns about CO2 emissions. Some are excited about the prospects of contributing to clean energy, and others like the potential for new jobs, especially for youth.

Still, residents have some concerns about the possibility of nuclear accidents or waste contamination.

SKB plans an expensive storage system. It will enclose the waste in solid steel blocks that are then covered by solid copper and placed in bedrock caves about 1,500 feet below the surface of the Baltic Sea off the coast of Östhammar (John Tagliabue, New York Times, April 5). – JP

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