Radwaste management company Posiva ‘has not completed materials’
Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk) has been given a further one-year extension to complete its review of Posiva Oy’s operating licence application for a used nuclear fuel repository after saying Posiva has not completed the materials needed for a full assessment.
Stuk said in a statement on 5 December that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has agreed to extend the deadline for the assessment to 31 December 2025.
Posiva, the company in charge of radioactive waste management in Finland, submitted the operating licence application to the ministry 30 December 2021. Posiva is jointly owned by Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) and Fortum, Finland’s two nuclear plant operators.
The licence is for a used fuel encapsulation plant and a deep geologic final disposal facility under construction at Olkiluoto, near the Olkiluoto nuclear power station.
The repository, known as Onkalo, is likely to become the first operational deep geological disposal facility in the world and is expected to begin operations in the mid-2020s. The operating licence would run from March 2024 to the end of 2070.
Stuk began its review in May 2022 with the ministry asking for its opinion on the application by the end of 2023. However, in January this year, Stuk asked for the deadline be extended until the end of 2024.
"Overall, Stuk has progressed well in processing the operating licence application,” the statement said. “Due to the scope of the materials and the updates Stuk required of Posiva, however, the processing has taken longer than anticipated. Stuk has received new materials from Posiva this autumn.”
In September, Posiva completed the first stage of a trial run at Onkalo. The full-system trial run began on 30 August 2024 to test all equipment and related systems working together for the first time.
Posiva has been working for several decades at the Onkalo site to develop a concept for final disposal and demonstrate long-term safety.
In May 2021, excavation began of final disposal tunnels. Posiva has also built an encapsulation plant for used fuel at the Onkalo site.
Finland has five commercial nuclear power plants in operation – two at Fortum’s Loviisa site and three at TVO’s Olkiluoto.
