'Life and Hope': Finland's Nuclear Waste Repository Nears Operation

Finland is on the verge of opening Onkalo, a unique geological repository designed to permanently store radioactive spent nuclear fuel. Located deep within 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock in Eurajoki, the facility, whose name means "cave" in Finnish, is nearing the end of its construction and is awaiting final approval from the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) in June.

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We hope we can start the operation either at the end of this year or most probably at the beginning of next year.

Nuclear operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) hopes to begin operations by the end of this year or early next. Philippe Bordarier, TVO's chief executive, explained that the spent fuel, currently cooled in water pools at the nearby Olkiluoto power plant, will be the first to be deposited. The repository has capacity for 6,500 tons of uranium, intended for the spent fuel from Finland's five nuclear reactors.

Construction of Onkalo began in 2004, with the project's cost now estimated at one billion euros. The spent fuel will be encased in corrosion-resistant copper canisters and lowered into tunnels. These tunnels will then be sealed with bentonite clay and concrete plugs. The facility is designed for safe storage for at least 100,000 years, with the waste remaining highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years before reaching levels similar to natural uranium ore.

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Basically, it needs to be safe forever.

While neighboring Sweden and France are also developing final repositories, Finland is poised to be the first to implement an underground storage solution. Experts like Lauri Parviainen, a Posiva chemist, emphasize the long-term safety goal, stating, "Basically, it needs to be safe forever." Jarkko Kyllonen, a nuclear safety expert at STUK, has been assessing risk scenarios for the project, which could extend up to a million years.

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So if the bentonite stays in place, we are safe.