wakibitos

Quoted from BBC: Finland’s plan to bury spent nuclear fuel for 100,000 years – BBC Future

Finland is on the verge of becoming the first nation to bury spent nuclear fuel rods deep underground for the long term. Erika Benke visits the Onkalo site to find out more.

“Onkalo” is a Finnish word for a cave or a hollow. It implies something big and deep: you don’t know where an onkalo ends or whether it ends at all.

It’s a fitting name for a huge grave made in Finland over the last 20 years. Onkalo, which lies 450m (1,500ft) deep inside the bedrock of Olkiluoto island in the southwest of the country, is the world’s first permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel.

The gently winding road to Olkiluoto is lined with pine trees stretching high up to the sky. Nature has come back to life here after five months of winter. The ground is covered by a carpet of small yellow flowers and the air is filled with birdsong. It’s almost too beautiful a setting for a major industrial site.

Olkiluoto is home to three nuclear reactors, which stand side by side on the seaside. The third launched only this year, becoming the first new reactor to provide power in Western Europe in 15 years. These reactors, along with two others in Loviisa on the south coast, produce 33% of Finland’s electricity.

A few minutes’ drive away from the Olkiluoto reactors, construction of the world’s first Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) for spent nuclear fuel is nearing completion.

It’s our generation of scientists’ and engineers’ responsibility to undertake the challenge to dispose of the waste, instead of leaving it to future generations – Lewis Blackburn

For more details please refer to: Finland’s plan to bury spent nuclear fuel for 100,000 years – BBC Future