Finland readies world's first underground storage for spent nuclear fuel

Industry Discussions Nuclear Power
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’ Preparations are underway to start the disposal of spent nuclear fuel in the Finnish bedrock next year, as the first place in the world to implement underground storage of high-level nuclear waste. The storage site is at Olkiluoto in Eurajoki, southwest Finland’

’ Onkalo, meaning “pit” or “cavity” in Finnish, will shelter spent uranium fuel nearly half a kilometer below Earth’s surface outside the town of Eurajoki. A series of barriers—giant copper casks, water-absorbing bentonite clay, and water-resistant crystalline rock—are expected to protect harmful radionuclides from seeping out of the site and into the local ecosystem. However, the decidedly nonporous rock still contain cracks, and Posiva—the nuclear waste company in charge of the project—had to map and avoid them as workers dug deeper.

The project is crucial to mitigating risk for Finland’s nuclear energy sector, which will account for 40% of the country’s electricity after a fifth reactor comes online this year. If successful, Onkalo’s copper casks will keep spent uranium safe and dry until it has decayed to acceptable levels—at least 100,000 years in the future.’
https://www.science.org/content/article/watch-how-finland-plans-store-uranium-waste-100-000-years

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Finland has all 5 reactors operating since 2022.

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Sanity exists in the world? Oh, but it is Finland, so small and reliably sane as to almost not count…

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At least they demonstrate how it can be done when the political environment allows.

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Is there any political environment in France, China, Russia, UK, or Canada that is holding them back from doing what Finland is doing? They are still thinking about what to do.

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A few new developments…

A trial run of waste canisters has begun at Onkalo. These first test canisters don’t contain actual spent fuel, but the trial shows that the equipment functions properly and there aren’t any major problems.

From the link:
According to Posiva, the repository’s equipment and systems will be tested together for the first time in accordance with planned processes during the trial run, which began on August 30. The exercise is intended to verify disposal safety prior to the start of actual operations.

During the trial run, four canisters will be placed in 8-meter-deep (26.25 feet) deposition holes excavated along a 70-meter-long (229.7 feet) disposal tunnel within the repository. The deposition holes and disposal tunnel will then be filled with bentonite clay and the tunnel sealed with a concrete plug. The trial run also covers the retrieval of a damaged cannister back to the ground level.

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Meanwhile, next door in Sweden, planning continues for establishing a deep repository for spent fuel.

Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) applied in 2011 to the Land and Environmental Court in Nacka district court for permission to dispose of used nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. The court then prepared the application, held a longer main hearing in 2017 and submitted its opinion to the government in 2018. The government decided on 27 January 2022 that the activity was permissible according to Sweden’s Environmental Code.

The court has now granted SKB permission and determined the conditions that will apply to the business. An enforcement order also issued by the court means SKB can start initial work at both sites even if the judgment is appealed to the Land and Environment Court at the Svea Court of Appeal.

Some of the preparatory work that can now begin includes…

SKB said the works that are within the scope of the permit - and which can start once the County Board of Uppsala County approves the control programme - include protective measures and preparatory work. In Forsmark, where the repository is to be built, it involves forest felling, excavation work for the operational area, construction of an area for rock storage, construction of a bridge over the cooling water channel, filling of the operating area and facilities for nitrogen purification.

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It is obviously a slow and bureaucratic process, but the spent fuel will only be moved into the repository once, and there is no immediate need for rushing things…

_ Pete

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More waste management news, this time from Canada…

From the link:
The project will now move forward to the regulatory decision-making process. The NWMO has agreed to an Indigenous-led Regulatory Assessment and Approval Process, a sovereign regulatory process that will be developed and implemented by Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation to ensure that potential impacts of the project are assessed against Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation’s Anishinaabe values, and that conditions to mitigate any impacts are designed by Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and complied with by the NWMO. The project will also undergo the regulatory decision-making processes of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and through the Government of Canada’s impact assessment process.

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From the diagrams in the link. it looks like the Canadian plan is similar to Onkalo in Finland, including the use of bentonite clay packed around the waste containers.

_ Pete

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