Workers inspect the repository at ONKALO, an underground facility for the safe storage of nuclear waste in deep geological formations, on the island of Eurajoki in western Finland, on May 2, 2023.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images
Finland is about to bury spent nuclear fuel in the world’s first geological grave, where it will be stored for 100,000 years.
The groundbreaking project was hailed as both a turning point for the long-term sustainability of nuclear energy and a “model for the whole world”.
Sometime next year or early 2026, highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel is to be packed into waterproof containers and deposited in bedrock more than 400 meters beneath the forests of southwestern Finland.
The durable copper containers are insulated, separated from people and stored underground for thousands of years.
“Onkalo,” the repository’s brand name, is the Finnish word for a small cave or pit. It’s a fitting name for the repository, which sits atop a labyrinth of tunnels and next to three nuclear reactors on the island of Olkiluoto, about 240 kilometers from the capital Helsinki.
A worker walks through the turbine room of OL3, the newest of the three reactors at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant on the island of Eurajoki in western Finland, on May 2, 2023.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images
Posiva was founded in 1995 and is responsible for the final storage of spent fuel in Onkalo. The Finnish company is jointly owned by the TVO nuclear power plant and the energy company Fortum.
“Essentially, the Onkalo project is that we are building an encapsulation plant and a spent fuel disposal facility. And this is not temporary, it is permanent,” Pasi Tuohimaa, Posiva’s communications chief, told CNBC via video conference.
The fact that Finland has now built a repository and we will have it operational and start disposing of it in the next one to two years… I don’t want to call it a miracle, but it would not be a bad way to put it in the global context.
Gareth Law
Professor of Radiochemistry at the University of Helsinki
Tuohimaa said the first-of-its-kind geological repository had attracted great interest from industry, citing what he said was the nuclear “renaissance” that had taken place in recent years, as well as the energy crisis that gripped Europe and parts of Asia from mid-2021 to late 2022.
“Having a solution for the disposal of spent fuel was like the missing piece in the sustainable life cycle of nuclear energy,” said Tuohimaa.
The role of nuclear power
The Onkalo project has sparked a debate about whether the long-term safety of nuclear waste can be guaranteed at all and to what extent nuclear energy should be used in the fight against the climate crisis.
According to the World Nuclear Association, nuclear energy currently provides about 9% of the world’s electricity.
Proponents argue that because of its low carbon emissions, nuclear energy has the potential to play a significant role in generating electricity in countries while dramatically reducing emissions and reducing their dependence on fossil fuels.
However, some environmental groups say the nuclear industry is an expensive and harmful distraction from cheaper and cleaner alternatives.
Finland is about to bury spent nuclear fuel in the world’s first geological grave. The Onkalo site is located next to three nuclear reactors on the island of Olkiluoto in southwestern Finland.
Photo credit: Posiva
“I work in both nuclear waste management and nuclear accidents and have seen the best and the worst that the nuclear industry has to offer,” Gareth Law, professor of radiochemistry at the University of Helsinki, told CNBC via video conference.
“Clean energy, cheap energy, good base load, but I have also seen the downsides: accidents, waste disposal and the problems we have there,” he continued.
“The fact that there is now a country that is demonstrating that you can actually dispose of this very dangerous waste that will be here for over 100,000 years, and that we actually have a disposal solution for it, shows in my opinion that it can be done.”
Finland “at least a decade ahead”
Law described the Onkalo project as a “major milestone” for both Finland and the international nuclear industry.
“Posiva is absolutely right to sell this as a world first. It will be the first repository to take spent nuclear fuel and dispose of it in a very safe and robust way in the future, in my opinion.”
Law said that while many countries want to follow Finland’s example in terms of geological disposal of spent fuel, the Nordic country is “at least a decade” ahead of neighbouring Sweden, which is expected to be the next to achieve such a feat.
On May 2, 2023, visitors will be shown the ONKALO repository on the island of Eurajoki in western Finland, an underground facility for the safe storage of nuclear waste in deep geological formations.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images
“From a scientific and technical perspective, it is very difficult to implement and put into effect. But also politically, it is very, very difficult to get the necessary impetus for this disposal scenario,” Law said.
“Many countries in the world are still in the planning phase and are even trying to find a place to store the waste. The fact that Finland has now built a repository and will have it up and running in the next year or two and will start disposing of it… I don’t want to call it a miracle, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to put it in the global context.”
“A model for the whole world”
The Onkalo project is based on the so-called “KBS-3” method developed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, which is working on what could be the world’s second final repository.
KBS-3 is based on a multi-barrier principle, where several technical barriers are designed to ensure the long-term safety of the spent nuclear fuel. In practice, this means that the isolation of the radioactive waste is not endangered if one of the barriers fails.
“In this way we can show that such a small country is sometimes able to solve one of perhaps the twenty biggest problems or challenges facing humanity,” Finnish Climate Minister Kai Mykkänen told CNBC via video conference.
“As we have seen over the past decade, nuclear energy seems to have a very important role to play in the Green Deal in Europe… but especially if we want Asia and the US to phase out fossil fuel production,” he added.
The ONKALO repository, an underground facility for the safe storage of nuclear waste in deep geological formations, is seen on the island of Eurajoki in western Finland on May 2, 2023.
Jonathan Nackstrand | Afp | Getty Images
When asked whether the Onkalo project could be seen as a solution to the long-term problem of nuclear waste, Mykkänen replied: “Yes, definitely.”
He added: “I am sure that the clear majority of the Finnish population and also an even larger population near Onkalo see this in a similar way. People really see this as a solution that replaces more harmful energy.”
Mykkänen expressed the hope that the Onkalo project would be “a model for the whole world”.