Finland Grants License for World's First Nuclear Waste Repository
The repository will hold 6,500 tonnes of uranium from Finland’s five reactors and is expected to be the first permanent underground storage site to open.
- On Thursday, Finland became the first country to receive an operating license for a permanent nuclear waste repository in Eurajoki. Posiva chief executive Ilkka Poikolainen said, "This is a great and historic day for both Posiva and Finland."
- The site, dubbed Onkalo which means "cave" in Finnish, is blasted into 1.9 billion-year-old stable bedrock in Eurajoki. It addresses decades of global challenges with permanent storage for 6,500 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel from Finland's five reactors.
- Before final disposal begins, Posiva will complete commissioning tests that STUK, the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, must verify and approve. Fuel will be encapsulated in corrosion-resistant copper canisters, then sealed with bentonite clay and concrete plugs.
- Although the repository will be the world's first, "no detailed schedule is given at this point for the start-up," according to Posiva. Sweden and France are building similar facilities, yet Finland leads the global effort.
- Estimated at $1.16 billion, the repository will house fuel remaining harmfully radioactive for thousands of years. Posiva notes that after about 100,000 years, radioactivity levels will match natural uranium ore.
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(Brussels=Yonhap News) Correspondent Hyun Yun-kyung = The German news agency dpa reported that the Finnish government has granted an operating license for the world's first final disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel...
While Germany continues to search for a location, Finland is pushing ahead: In the future, highly radioactive waste can be permanently stored on the island of Olkiluoto at a depth of more than 400 metres. However, a decisive step is still to be taken.
Finland is the first country in the world to issue an operating permit for a nuclear waste repository, allowing the nuclear power plant's operating company to include radioactive waste in containers and permanently store it. Storage is carried out at a depth of more than 400 metres, the Finnish government said.
In a storage facility over 400 metres deep, it is planned to store up to 6,500 tons of uranium, and the facility must be checked by the regulator before it can begin operation.
Finland has become the first country in the world to grant a permit to operate a repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The decision by the government in Helsinki allows the company Posiva to encapsulate and store radioactive waste from the Olkiluoto and Loviisa nuclear power plants. The facility is located on the island of Olkiluoto, in the western part of the country. It includes an above-ground encapsulation facility and an …
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