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Finland nears launch of world's first permanent underground nuclear waste repository
🇵🇦 Panama /Energy & Infrastructure

Finland nears launch of world's first permanent underground nuclear waste repository

From TVN Panamá · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Ongoing story
  • Finland is nearing the operational launch of Onkalo, the world's first permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel.
  • The facility, excavated deep into stable bedrock, is awaiting final safety assessments before it can begin receiving waste from Finland's five nuclear reactors.
  • Once operational, Onkalo will store spent fuel for at least 100,000 years, aiming for permanent and safe disposal of hazardous radioactive byproducts.

Finland is on the cusp of opening the world's first permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel, a critical step in managing the hazardous byproducts of nuclear energy. The facility, named Onkalo, meaning 'cavern' in Finnish, is excavated 433 meters below ground in a stable, 1.9-billion-year-old rock formation in Eurajoki, southwestern Finland.

We expect to be able to start operations at the end of this year, or very probably at the beginning of next year.

— Philippe BordarierDirector General of nuclear operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), speaking about the anticipated operational start date for the Onkalo facility.

The repository is designed to safely store the dangerous waste generated by Finland's five nuclear reactors for at least 100,000 years. Currently, spent fuel is temporarily stored and cooled in water pools at the Olkiluoto power plant. Onkalo's construction, initiated by nuclear waste management company Posiva in 2004, is nearing completion with an estimated cost exceeding one billion dollars.

It has to be safe forever.

— Lauri ParviainenChemist at Posiva, emphasizing the long-term safety objective of the Onkalo repository.

Philippe Bordarier, CEO of nuclear operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), anticipates operations could begin by the end of this year or early next year, pending final approval from the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) in June. The spent fuel will be encased in highly corrosion-resistant copper containers and then buried in boreholes within Onkalo's tunnels, backfilled with bentonite clay.

during a few tens of thousands of years

— Lauri ParviainenChemist at Posiva, describing the duration for which the nuclear fuel will remain highly radioactive.

Lauri Parviainen, a chemist at Posiva, emphasized the long-term safety goal: "It has to be safe forever." While the fuel will remain highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years, its radioactivity is expected to decrease to levels comparable to natural uranium ore after 100,000 years. The facility has a capacity of 6,500 tons of uranium, ensuring permanent storage for fuel from Finland's reactors.

approximately equivalent to that of the uranium ore from which the fuel is made

— Lauri ParviainenChemist at Posiva, explaining the expected radioactivity level of the spent fuel after 100,000 years.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by TVN Panamá in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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