The Finnish final repository for spent nuclear fuel is being built using the method developed by Swedish Nuclear Fuel Management Company SKB. The repository is expected to receive its first spent fuel in the middle of the 2020s and will thus be the first of its kind in the world.
The handling of spent nuclear fuel has been a source of debate since the first commercial use of nuclear energy in the second half of the twentieth century. On the one hand, nuclear fuel is a large source of fossil-free energy. It does, however, come at its price, as spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive. In 2022, the European Union included nuclear energy into its EU taxonomy for sustainable activities after rigorous debates, thereby promoting investment into its production. As nuclear power will remain part of the European energy mix, member states are looking into final disposal options.
Sweden and Finland are the global frontrunners in the push for a final solution to the increasing volumes of spent nuclear fuel. In Finland, Posiva has been tasked with the responsibility of building and operating Finland’s final repository, based on a method developed by Swedish Nuclear Fuel Management Company SKB. Posiva has constructed such a facility and is in the process of obtaining a license to operate it. Finland will thus be the first country in the world to provide a repository in which nuclear waste can be safely stored for at least 100,000 years. Direct radiation will approximately decay already within 1,000 years. Afterwards, the spent nuclear fuel would still be damaging to the body upon ingestion, which is why it will remain inside the repository.
