Deep within the bedrock in western Finland, flashing lights from heavy machinery cast shadows in eerie tunnels that lead to a tomb that must remain unperturbed for millennia.
There is a reason the catacomb on the lush island of Olkiluoto was buried 400m below ground: It will house the world’s first spent nuclear fuel disposal facility.
The project, which aims to solve the age-old quagmire of what to do with nuclear waste, is nearing completion in a region that is already home to Europe’s largest nuclear reactor.
Photo: AFP
The Onkalo repository is designed to house a total of 6,500 tonnes of uranium, covering the spent fuel produced by Finland’s five nuclear reactors during their lifetime.
Low-carbon nuclear power has been hailed as a climate-friendly energy source as the world struggles to combat global warming.
However, environmentalists worry about their safety and warn that disposing radioactive waste carries huge risks.
About 400,000 tonnes of used fuel have been discharged from reactors worldwide so far, the World Nuclear Association estimates, most of which is stored in temporary storage facilities near power plants.
However, the long-term storage problem has cast a shadow on nuclear projects.
Onkalo’s operator, Posiva, has developed its solution together with the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co (SKB).
The plan is to encapsulate the used uranium in thick copper shells and bury the up to 5m-long canisters in the bedrock, before sealing the tunnel with a massive, wedge-shaped and steel-reinforced concrete plug.
Construction began at Onkalo — Finnish for “hollow” —- in 2004, and final trials are to be conducted early next year.
“Once we have established that we are ready, we can then move on to the actual operational phase in the mid-2020s,” said geologist Johanna Hansen, Onkalo’s research and development coordinator.
FINAL RESTING PLACE
The immense amount of time it takes for radiation to decrease to safe levels poses significant challenges.
It can take about 250,000 years for the high-level toxic waste to reach the radiation levels of a naturally occurring uranium deposit.
Put in context, 250,000 years ago Europe was in the midst of an Ice Age and was home to Neanderthals and mammoths, while Homo sapiens had only recently emerged in Africa.
In other words, before the waste no longer poses a threat to the environment or people, the landscape of Olkiluoto island may have changed dramatically.
Posiva said the canisters are designed to withstand even major changes taking place on Earth.
However, some experts have cast doubt on the Finnish-Swedish disposal method.
“It is not a solution; it’s a reduction of risk,” said Jan Haverkamp, a nuclear energy expert at Greenpeace.
Haverkamp said Posiva is giving “no real attention” to the discourse around corrosion of the copper canister in Sweden.
For example, researchers at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) have questioned the plan’s safety by highlighting greater risks of copper corrosion than previously acknowledged, which could result in leakage.
“The case for not producing more waste is still standing as strong as it was standing 20 years ago,” he added.
Posiva and SKB have refuted KTH’s experimental studies, and the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority has concluded that the plans meet the requirements of nuclear and radiation safety.
Allison Macfarlane, professor at the University of British Columbia, said that while no plan is “100 percent safe,” Onkalo is “certainly the solution that’s received the most research.”
The alternative would be “leaving the waste where it is above ground without a plan indefinitely,” he added.
If the nuclear waste is left above ground and our society falls apart, “it will definitely get into the environment and affect humans,” she said.
She believes that in a reasonably selected location, the waste “will remain safe for thousands and tens of thousands of years.”
“I think it is the internationally agreed-upon solution to the problem of nuclear waste,” she said.
LEADING THE WAY
Locations for potential nuclear waste repositories have been selected in Sweden, France and Switzerland, with Canada close to making a decision.
“Now that we are leading the way, others are following and doing the same,” Hansen said.
However, many projects have faced resistance and locations have been difficult to agree on, such as France’s Cigeo project in the country’s northeast.
In April, Finland’s next-generation Olkiluoto 3 nuclear reactor, the largest in Europe, went into regular production.
A poll published the same month by the trade association Finnish Energy showed record-high support for nuclear energy in Finland, with 68 percent of Finns in favor.
“Sweden and Finland have shown us that the technical challenges can be surmounted,” Macfarlane said.
“Other challenges that need to be addressed are the political ones,” she said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS