Finland has issued an operating licence for Onkalo, a site in western Finland described as the world’s first permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel. The government handed over the licence on Thursday, according to waste management company Posiva.
The licence does not yet allow the facility to open, but Posiva said operations are expected to begin soon. No exact start date has been set, more than 22 years after construction began.
Commissioning tests before final disposal
Posiva chief executive Ilkka Poikolainen called the decision “a great and historic day for both Posiva and Finland” in a statement. Before waste is permanently placed, the company will complete commissioning, including tests and inspections that STUK, the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, must verify and approve.
How the Onkalo repository will store waste
Onkalo has space for 6,500 tonnes of uranium and will hold spent fuel from Finland’s five nuclear reactors. The name means “cave” in Finnish. Fuel will be sealed in copper canisters that resist corrosion, lowered into holes drilled in the bedrock, surrounded by bentonite clay and capped with a steel-reinforced concrete plug.
The waste will remain highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Posiva said that after about 100,000 years, radiation levels will be roughly the same as those of the uranium ore used to make the fuel.
Finland poised to lead on global waste storage
Countries have struggled with nuclear by-products since the first plants were built in the 1950s, and most of this waste remains in temporary storage. Final repositories are being built elsewhere, including in neighbouring Sweden and France, but Finland is expected to be the first to open one. The Onkalo site’s cost has been estimated at $1.16bn.
