Finland nearing opening of world’s first permanent nuclear waste repository

Facilities are being built in many countries, but Finland is the first to licence its underground storage facility.

A disposal tunnel inside the Posiva Onkalo nuclear waste repository on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland [File: James Brooks/AP]

Finland has granted an operating licence for the world’s first permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel.

The government handed Onkalo, in western Finland, the licence on Thursday, waste management company Posiva said.

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Although the move does not allow the opening of the facility, it is expected to start operations soon, the firm said. However, 22 years after construction began, no exact date has been decided yet.

“This is a great and historic day for both Posiva and Finland,” the company’s Chief Executive Officer Ilkka Poikolainen said in a statement.

“Before final disposal begins, Posiva will finalise the commissioning stage, carrying out the necessary tests and inspections which STUK [the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority] also needs to verify and approve.”

With space for 6,500 tonnes of uranium, Onkalo, which means “cave” in Finnish, will provide permanent storage for spent fuel from Finland’s five nuclear reactors.

The fuel will be enclosed in copper canisters that are highly resistant to corrosion inside the geological repository . The canisters will then be lowered into holes drilled into the bedrock, which will be filled with bentonite clay and finally sealed with a steel-reinforced concrete plug.

The waste will remain highly radioactive for tens of thousands of years. After about 100,000 years, the levels will be about the same as the uranium ore of which the fuel is made, according to Posiva.

Countries have been wrestling with what to do with dangerous nuclear by-products since the first plants were built in the 1950s. Currently, most of it is in temporary storage.

Final repositories are being built in other countries, including neighbouring Sweden and France, but Finland is expected to be the first to open its underground storage facility.

The cost of the Onkalo site has been estimated at $1.16bn.

许多国家都在建设类似的设施，但芬兰是第一个为其地下储罐设施颁发许可证的国家。

芬兰奥尔基洛托岛波西瓦翁卡洛核废料处置库内的处置隧道 [图片：James Brooks/AP]

芬兰已颁发全球首个永久性地下乏核燃料储存库的运营许可证。

废物管理公司 Posiva 表示，政府于周四向芬兰西部的 Onkalo 颁发了许可证。

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伊朗表示，在美方满足条件之前，霍尔木兹海峡将继续关闭。伊朗称，霍尔木兹海峡将继续关闭，直至美国满足相关条件。

乌克兰计划建立独立卫星系统，但星链问题依然存在（共4项，此为第4项）。

该公司表示，虽然此举并不意味着该设施将立即投入运营，但预计很快就能开始运作。然而，在开工建设22年后，具体日期仍未确定。

“对于 Posiva 和芬兰来说，今天都是一个伟大而具有历史意义的日子，”该公司首席执行官伊尔卡·波伊科莱宁在一份声明中表示。

“在最终处置开始之前，Posiva 将完成调试阶段，进行必要的测试和检查，这些测试和检查也需要得到芬兰辐射和核安全管理局 (STUK) 的验证和批准。”

Onkalo（芬兰语意为“洞穴”）可容纳 6500 吨铀，将为芬兰五个核反应堆的乏燃料提供永久储存空间。

燃料将被密封在地质处置库内耐腐蚀性极强的铜罐中。然后，这些铜罐将被放入基岩上预先钻好的孔中，孔内将填充膨润土，最后用钢筋混凝土塞密封。

这些废料将在数万年内保持高放射性。据波西瓦公司称，大约10万年后，其放射性水平将与制造该燃料的铀矿石的放射性水平大致相同。

自上世纪50年代第一批核电站建成以来，各国一直在努力解决如何处理危险的核副产品。目前，大部分核副产品都处于临时储存状态。

其他国家，包括邻国瑞典和法国，都在建设最终的核废料储存库，但芬兰有望成为第一个开放其地下储存设施的国家。

Onkalo 核电站的建设成本估计为 11.6 亿美元。