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SINGAPORE \u2013 There are no major technical roadblocks for the Republic to store its nuclear waste \u2013 possibly deep underground \u2013 if the country decides to adopt nuclear energy<\/span><\/a>, according to a study by the Singapore authorities and a Swedish company.<\/p>\n The finding was based on a desktop study, which does not include on-site investigations, and future surveys will need to be done to make a comprehensive assessment, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) told The Straits Times.<\/p>\n In 2023, the EMA and the National Environment Agency (NEA) engaged SKB International \u2013 a Swedish pioneer in dealing with nuclear waste \u2013 to conduct a study to better understand and evaluate the implications of radioactive waste management for a small and densely populated country like Singapore.<\/p>\n While the study was conducted in 2023, it was made public in May 2026 when the Government announced that\u00a0the Republic will undergo an assessment by the UN nuclear watchdog in 2027<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to determine\u00a0the\u00a0nation\u2019s ability to make an informed decision on nuclear energy deployment.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s capabilities in managing radioactive waste is one of 19 critical areas that the\u00a0International Atomic Energy Agency will evaluate.<\/p>\n The study provided insights into the best practices for the safe storage and disposal of radioactive waste, said EMA, and comes as Singapore mulls over nuclear power as a clean new energy source.<\/p>\n Nuclear or radioactive waste is a by-product of nuclear power plants. It contains or emits radioactive particles, and can remain hazardous for thousands of years. If not properly managed, it can cause serious damage to human health and the environment.<\/p>\n So it needs to be very carefully disposed of.<\/p>\n Nuclear waste is classified mainly in terms of how radioactive it is and how long it takes for the materials to decay to safe levels. Low-level waste includes items such as gloves and uniforms that are contaminated with small amounts of mildly radioactive materials.<\/p>\n High-level waste refers mainly to used uranium fuel rods that are hot and highly radioactive. The used rods contain radiation-emitting particles, such as plutonium-239 that takes some 240,000 years to decay to lower levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n The waste must be buried safely in case of contamination. In the past, NASA had contemplated shooting nuclear waste into outer space, but that idea was rejected given the cost and risks of rocket launch failure.<\/p>\n \u201cRadioactive waste management is one of the key considerations in any nuclear power programme, and agencies have been building capabilities to understand global practices and options suitable for Singapore,\u201d said EMA.<\/p>\n For several decades, in countries that have nuclear power plants, used nuclear fuel rods have been temporarily stored in pools within plants to cool down, or in protective casks awaiting the development of underground storage facilities \u2013 man-made networks of underground tunnels about 400km to 800km underground.<\/p>\n Such facilities are called deep geological repositories, which are designed to isolate radiation-emitting particles from living things for hundreds of thousands of years. Several countries such as Finland, Sweden, and France are at various stages of constructing or licensing such facilities, but only Finland has fully built one that is slated to start operations later in 2026.<\/p>\n SKB International is the firm behind the technology for Finland\u2019s nuclear waste tomb called Onkalo \u2013 a 10km-long cavern within granite and gneiss rock.<\/p>\n The company performed the desktop study on various deep geological repository concepts based on publicly available data for Singapore, said EMA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe study did not indicate that there are technical showstoppers in any of the radioactive waste management options for Singapore. For example, the amount of radioactive waste generated is not expected to be prohibitive for a small country like Singapore,\u201d said the agency.<\/p>\n The amount of waste produced depends on the type of reactor. A 1GW traditional large reactor, for instance, can produce enough energy to power about 700,000 homes a year.<\/p>\n It can produce about 370,000 litres of nuclear waste a year, which would fill about one-seventh of an Olympic pool. Of this, around 5 per cent is high-level waste, mainly used fuel.<\/p>\n In comparison, Singapore\u2019s Semakau Landfill<\/span><\/a> has the capacity of more than 11,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.<\/p>\n The study concluded that existing approaches in managing radioactive waste from traditional nuclear power plants are feasible for small modular reactors \u2013 which are more advanced and safer reactors that Singapore has been monitoring.<\/p>\n Small modular reactors can have a power capacity of up to 300MW, a third of a 1GW conventional plant. The amount of waste produced by a small reactor depends on its design. Some studies have shown that a small modular reactor can produce as much waste as a large one for every unit of electricity produced.<\/p>\n \u201cThe risks of managing radioactive waste are low and can be mitigated through proper radiation shielding and containment measures,\u201d said EMA.<\/p>\n However, to comprehensively assess the technical feasibility of hosting a deep geological repository in Singapore, additional surveys on the country\u2019s geophysical environment will still need to be conducted, added the EMA.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue building our capabilities in this area, including collaborating with international experts to understand various waste management solutions and their suitability for Singapore,\u201d said EMA.<\/p>\n Experts said Singapore\u2019s granite rocks in the northern and central regions may be suitable to store used fuel and radioactive waste, but they must be unfractured and possess certain properties.<\/p>\n Granite is a preferred rock type for deep waste storage because it is hard, dense and relatively impermeable to groundwater, which can transport radiation-emitting particles, said Mark Lim, chairman of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society\u2019s Singapore chapter.<\/p>\n \u201cSingapore is fortunate to have well-characterised granitic formations, such as the Bukit Timah granite, which extends across Woodlands and Sembawang through Bukit Batok and down to the central part of Singapore. We also have granitic rock on Pulau Ubin,\u201d added Lim.<\/p>\n The granite needs to be unfractured, or free of fault lines.<\/p>\n \u201cIn heavily fractured zones, groundwater can find pathways through the rock and this defeats the purpose of geological isolation,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n Further studies will need to scrutinise rock samples, monitor groundwater movement and look into environmental impacts before any site can be considered, he added.<\/p>\n Apart from the rock, a deep underground repository should have two other layers of defence, or barriers: a corrosion-resistant copper canister encapsulating the used fuel rods, and a buffer clay material that envelops the canister and swells when exposed to groundwater, to close up fissures in rock.<\/p>\n If one barrier is weaker, the other barriers can be enhanced to maintain the overall stability of a deep geological repository, EMA explained.<\/p>\n This enables such underground facilities to be safely built across a range of geological conditions, the agency said.<\/p>\n Instead of building a snaking underground cavern, Singapore could consider drilling a narrower, but deep borehole to store the waste, given the space constraints on land and underground, suggested Lim.<\/p>\n This is an emerging form of underground storage which involves placing fuel canisters at the bottom of a 5km-deep hole \u2013 far away from shallower groundwater aquifers. The waste will then be sealed with bentonite clay, cement and asphalt, making it impossible to retrieve.<\/p>\n Experts say that one key issue to navigate is the social perception towards having a nuclear waste storage site in Singapore. Globally, it has been tough to pin down disposal areas because neighbouring communities have concerns.<\/p>\n Matthew Chew, nuclear competency and strategy lead at engineering consultancy HY, noted that it took four decades for Finland\u2019s Onkalo site to be built.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took almost 20 years for a site to be selected, after the Finnish government set up its nuclear waste policy, and with continuous public engagement. And even after ratification, it took another 20 years before operations will begin,\u201d said Chew.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cGiven Singapore\u2019s extremely unique considerations and geographical constraints, the public will need to be constantly engaged. We will need to engage the public on basic nuclear energy before we even talk about underground waste storage in Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n Lim added: \u201cAn underground disposal facility could be sited in an area well away from residential neighbourhoods. Potentially in a less densely developed part of Singapore, or on a suitable offshore island.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 There are no major technical roadblocks for the Republic to store its nuclear waste \u2013 possibly deep underground \u2013 if the country decides…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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