Finland to build world's first nuke waste facility
Finland's government has given the go-ahead for the construction of the world's first permanent repository to store nuclear waste for 100,000 years.
The government said on Thursday that the Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva Ltd. has been granted a license to construct a spent nuclear fuel encapsulation plant and disposal facility in Olkiluoto Island.
Located in western Finland, Olkiluoto houses underground tunnels where the radioactive high-level nuclear waste is to be buried at a depth of between 400 and 450 meters (1,300-1,480 feet).
The tunnels have already been constructed to study and verify the solidity of the area's rock bed where the waste is to be housed for around 100,000 years before its level of radioactivity begins to dissipate.
"This is the world's first authorization for the final repository of used nuclear waste," Finland's Economy Minister Olli Rehn said at a press conference.
The storage method consists of encapsulating the spent fuel in copper-coated containers, placing them deep underground in a hole in the rock which is then sealed with a buffer of bentonite clay, a volcanic ash that swells when mixed with water.
"Finland's radiation safety center has assessed the method," said Rehn.
The cost for the repository's entire life cycle,up to 100,000 years, is estimated at 3.5 billion euros.
A similar project is under way in neighboring Sweden where a final decision on the construction has not yet been made.
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