It’ll Be the First Permanent Nuclear Waste Site on Earth
AP Photo/James Brooks)
After many years of development, Finland is preparing to launch the world’s first permanent underground storage site for spent nuclear fuel. The facility, called Onkalo, is designed to serve as a long-term burial location for highly radioactive nuclear waste. Construction on the project began in 2004 along Finland’s western coast on the remote island of Olkiluoto, surrounded by dense forest. Authorities are expected to issue the final operating license for the $1.2 billion site within the coming months. Journalists from the Associated Press recently toured the complex before it becomes off-limits to most human access once operations begin.
The site was selected largely because of its stable bedrock. Geologist Tuomas Pere explained that the area contains migmatite-gneiss rock formations, which are considered extremely stable and have a very low risk of seismic activity. The facility is located near three of Finland’s five nuclear reactors. Spent fuel rods will be transported to a nearby encapsulation plant where robotic equipment will place them inside copper canisters. These sealed containers will then be placed deep underground in tunnels more than 1,300 feet below the surface. The canisters will be surrounded by layers of bentonite clay, a material that absorbs water and helps form a protective barrier. The goal is for the containers to remain sealed long enough for the radioactivity of the nuclear fuel to decline to levels that no longer threaten the environment.
Posiva, the company responsible for managing Finland’s nuclear waste, estimates it could take hundreds of thousands of years for the radioactive material to decay to natural background levels. The Onkalo facility is designed to hold about 6,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel. According to a 2022 report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, roughly 400,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel have been generated worldwide since the 1950s. About two-thirds of that material is currently stored in temporary facilities, while the remaining third has been reprocessed through recycling methods.
At present, no other country has an operational permanent underground disposal site for commercial nuclear waste. Sweden began construction on a similar facility in Forsmark last year, but it is not expected to open until the late 2030s. France’s proposed Cigéo repository has not yet started construction and continues to face opposition. Finland’s Onkalo site is expected to accept nuclear waste until sometime in the 2120s, after which the entire facility will be sealed permanently. Despite the progress represented by the project, some experts continue to warn that burying nuclear waste deep underground still carries scientific and environmental uncertainties.
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