Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Finland is the first country to have a deep geological repository, referred to as ONKALO, under construction. It is due to start storing spent nuclear fuel in 2025. Trial runs will begin in 2023 according to Posiva, the company charged by the Finnish government with handling final nuclear waste disposal.
     ONKALO is located near the Olkiluto nuclear power plant on Finland’s southwest coast. The repository will be constructed to a depth of about thirteen hundred feet in solid bedrock. The project uses a method of disposal developed in Sweden called KBS-3V. It employs a multiple barrier system currently seen as the international standard. 
     The process of disposal starts with individual tubes of spent nuclear fuel collected into a larger assembly. Groups of these assemblies are then inserted into cast iron canisters with a two-inch-thick copper exterior to protect the inner canister from corrosion. Then, the canisters are lowered into the underground portion of the facility.
     Once underground, the canisters are moved to a tunneled area where they are placed vertically into individually drilled cavities in the bedrock. Then they are surrounded by bentonite clay. This type of clay expands when exposed to water. This seals the canisters into place. Once each tunnel has reached capacity, they are backfilled with bentonite clay and sealed with concrete. Much of this activity will be carried out with the use of remote-controlled equipment designed for the purpose.
     Finland’s pioneering facility will be closely monitored as a number of other countries progress in their own efforts to geological disposal. On January 27th of this year, the Swedish government approved a plan from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company to build a final geological disposal site in Forsmark, which is eighty-seven miles north of Stockholm. It is currently the site of a operating nuclear power plant. Building permits will need to be issued before construction can begin. The site reportedly has official approval of impacted municipalities.
     In France, the Industrial Centre for Geological Disposal (CIGEO) is a deep geological disposal facility proposed near the northeastern village of Bure. The project is currently undergoing the second phase of public consultations. It has faced fierce opposition from anti-nuclear protestors. The project has been under consideration for thirty years according to Andra, the national agency for radioactive waste management. Construction is due to begin in 2025.
     Elsewhere, the U.K., Canada and Switzerland are each in their final phases of site selection. This process is dependent in part on public consultation and social acceptance.
      Government and private sector efforts to engage local municipalities in consent-based siting processes focused on gaining the agreement of residents who live near a proposed radioactive waste facility. Hopefully, the process included attempts by the government to be transparent, allow communities to gauge the potential opportunities and risks of hosting such a site, and to treat all people fairly.
      Engaging the public “requires substantial amounts of time and the right skill sets”, experts from Canada, Finland and Sweden told the US Government Accounting Office in a report on nuclear waste that was prepared for the U.S. Congress. Canada has spent nearly twenty years, Finland seventeen years and Sweden over thirty years in educating and engaging the public, before selecting a permanent geological storage site.
     In countries where the consent-based process is not a requirement, progress on geological disposal is different for reaching actual operation of disposal sites.
Please read Part 3 next