Sweden's government on Thursday approved plans deciding where to store spent radioactive nuclear fuel. The storage facility will be at a site in Forsmark, which is about 130 kilometers (81 miles)  north of Stockholm.

"We are doing this to take responsibility, both for the environment and people, but also for Sweden's long-term electricity production and Swedish jobs," Environment Minister Annika Strandhall said at a press conference. 

The plan, called KBS-3, still needs approval from the Swedish environmental court. The plans are set by SKB, a company belonging to the Swedish nuclear power industry. 

How will the storage facility work

Sweden plans to bury the waste in the bedrock near Forsmark. It will use iron casings surrounded by copper tubes that are slid into crystalline rock in a tunnel 500 meters underground. 

After about 70 years, when the facilities are full, they will be closed with bentonite clay to keep water out, and the facility will be sealed. 

The site will receive its first test shipments in 2023 and be operational by 2025. However, local media reports say the project may take longer to complete. 

At the moment, some of 7,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel is currently being stored at the mid-term storage facility in Oskarshamn on Sweden's east coast.

"Our generation must take responsibility for nuclear waste. This is the result of 40 years of research and it will be safe for 100,000 years," said Strandhall. 

Sweden has three nuclear power plants, which have produced 8,000 tons of highly radioactive waste since they started operating in the 1970s.

Nuclear waste has been a recurring problem for the world since the first nuclear reactors came to exist in the 1950s. The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates there are around 370,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel in temporary storage around the globe.

Many countries, including Germany, have not enacted long-term plans to deal with the leftover radioactive waste.

tg/sms  (dpa, AP, Reuters)