In a first for Finland, pilot batch due to be transferred by end of month
Power company Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) and energy company Rauman Biovoima Oy are to cooperate on a venture to use waste generated at the Olkiluoto nuclear power station in Finland in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant.
TVO, which owns and operates the three-unit Olkiluoto in southwest Finland, said this will be the first time that general waste originating in nuclear power plants is recycled in Finland.
The waste, which will be sent for incineration at Rauma Biovoima’s combined heat and power plant in Rauma, western Finland, is not subject to controls. It will include overalls, gloves and plastic coverings. Any materials that are poorly suited to incineration will be removed from the waste before it is sent.
The first pilot batch of waste is scheduled to be transferred from Olkiluoto to Rauman Biovoima by the end of November.
The objective of the venture is to increase waste utilisation, TVO said. Similar waste has previously been disposed of by burial, but this has been more expensive than the new method and has required the use of land resources.
“The benefit of the new operating model is that the waste can now for the first time be reclaimed for reuse through burning it for energy,” TVO said.
The general waste has been declared safe to people and the environment in terms of its radiation properties. It is no longer included in the scope of radiation control and can be treated as any combustible municipal waste.
Incineration will begin with a pilot batch of just under 10 cubic meters around the end of the year. TVO estimates that approximately 30-80 cubic metres of such waste suitable for incineration will be generated annually at Olkiluoto.
The Rauman Biovoima CHP plant supplies process steam, district heat and electricity produced with wood-based fuels to a paper mill and the Rauman Energia power company. The plant also produces almost all the district heat needed in the city of Rauma. The main fuels used at the plant are forest industry waste and wood and logging residues.
Unit 3 at the Olkiluoto nuclear power station in Finland. Courtesy TVO.
