Finland is soon to become the first country in the world to attempt the burial of nuclear fuel waste in a geological tomb – where it is planned to be stored for the next 100,000 years.
The plan is to pack the spent nuclear fuel in watertight canisters and deposit them about 1312 feet (400 meters) below ground level in the forest of the southwest region of Finland.
The country is planning to carry out this exercise in 2025 or the following year. The construction of the underground disposal facility is already underway, and it is being constantly analyzed to weed out any loopholes and ensure maximum security.
Onkalo, which means “cavity” in Finnish, is the name given to the planned facility that will store nuclear fuel waste for centuries to come.
It is close to the three nuclear reactors situated on the island of Olkiluoto and is approximately 150 miles (240 kilometers) away from the country’s capital, Helsinki.
Nuclear waste management
Every active nuclear reactor produces radioactive waste, which can be fragmented into three broad categories.
The first category is low-level waste, such as paper, rags, tools, and clothing, which remain radioactive for a short period. The next category is the intermediate-level waste, such as resins, chemicals, and reactor components, which can stay radioactive for a slightly longer duration.
The third category, and the most radioactive too, is the high-level waste. This is the spent fuel from the nuclear power plant , which has been derived after reprocessing the fuel.
A small portion of the radioactive materials contained in the fuel have an extremely long lifespan, which necessitates their isolation from nature.
For this reason, the final disposal canisters are designed to remain tight and impervious in their final deposition place long enough for the radioactivity of spent fuel to decrease to a level not harmful to the environment, the company in charge of Onkalo says.
The nuclear fuel waste is the product that will be stored at Onkalo, as its radioactivity levels can be dangerous for humans and all living beings for centuries.
Posiva – the company which is handling the construction of Onkalo – says that the facility consists of a “spiral-shaped access tunnel, four vertical shafts (personnel shaft, canister shaft and two ventilation shafts), tunnels and technical rooms.”
The company had received the disposal facility construction license from the Finnish government in 2015.
Onkalo repository in Finland
According to the company, till 2020, over half a million solid cubic meters of rock had been removed from the site for construction to take place.
This was done after a substantial amount of tests and surveys had been carried out to find out whether the site was suited for building a nuclear waste repository.
The annual report of Posiva for 2023 mentions that the trial run for final disposal –which will include simulation of final disposal with unirradiated copies of fuel elements – will be carried out in 2024.
The final system installations in the encapsulation plant are nearing completion.
The safety assessment and STUK’s statement on the operating license application for the final disposal facility of spent nuclear fuel will be issued in 2024.
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