Finland breaks ground on deep geological nuclear waste repository

• 2 years ago (2021-06-01)
• David Flin

Europe 1061 Nuclear 639

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The Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva Oy announced in May the start of excavation on its deep geological nuclear waste repository for spent nuclear fuel at ONKALO. The process has been certified by the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland. Operation of the repository is expected to begin in 2023. The total cost estimate is about €2.6 billion.

Posiva will pack used fuel inside copper-steel canisters at the above-ground encapsulation plant, from where they will be transferred into the underground tunnels of the repository. The repository is in 2 billion-year-old igneous Finnish bedrock.

About 100 deposition tunnels will be excavated during the 100-year operational period. The repository will have a total length of 35 km, with each tunnel being about 4.5 m high, 3.5 m wide, and 350 m long. Each tunnel will hold around 30 canisters.

The repository will be the first in the world to start final disposal of spent nuclear fuel.