Part 1 of 3 Parts
     Everyone agrees that dealing with the dangerous long-lived radioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants is an urgent global problem. There is a huge backlog of radioactive waste from nuclear power reactors, known as high-level waste. It is in need of safe and permanent disposal. This is a major challenge and it inhibits social acceptance of nuclear energy when the global nuclear industry is presenting itself as essential to addressing the climate crisis. Energy security is also a critical need in a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape.
     Although it is complex, nascent and resource intensive, development of deep geological storage sites for spent nuclear fuel and other wastes is currently thought by many to be the future gold standard for disposal. It would also be a boon to the industry in those countries that can claim progress in such approaches to radioactive waste disposal.
      Finland is using the construction of ONKALO, a first of its kind deep geological disposal site scheduled to enter operation in 2025 as the basis for significantly increasing the share of nuclear power in its energy portfolio. It claims that these plans are responsible because it is tackling one of the nuclear industry’s major challenges.
      In contrast to Finland, there is a stalemate on creating such disposal sites in the U.S. which is currently the biggest produce of nuclear energy in the world. This impediment is hindering a build-out of nuclear power in the U.S. according to a national panel on nuclear waste issues. The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board wrote to the U.S. Congress in April of 2021 that “The lack of progress on developing and operating a geological repository… impedes the associated potential benefits of having nuclear energy as part of a zero-carbon future for mitigation of climate change.”
      The promise of new technical solutions to the nuclear waste problem remains on the horizon. Emerging issues such as modern nuclear power plant producing even more radioactive waste are further complicating storage and disposal prospects.
      Some consider nuclear power critical for decarbonizing economies due to a few key factors.
      First, nuclear power plants’ emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants are close to zero during the operating phase. Second, they provide baseload generation of electricity that operates when intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind power cannot. Third, they support, rather than compete with, renewable energy sources because those sources are uniquely adapted to changing with demand load.
     The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the global agency supporting and advocating nuclear power. It recently emphasizes the third point above using 2020 data from nuclear power plants. During the pandemic, electricity demand fluctuated more than usual.
     The IAEA said in a report published in June 2021 that “Flexible nuclear power plant operation – or, in some cases, complete short-term shutdowns – supported grid operator needs and demonstrated nuclear power’s ability to integrate into sustainable energy systems of the future.”
     The IAEA projects that nuclear generating capacity could double to about eight hundred megawatts by 2050 compared to about four hundred megawatts in 2020. This high-end scenario would require significant action in order to be realized. However, disposal is an issue for the here and now. It is a problem that will only grow more urgent whether capacity reaches low-end or high-end projections.
      The international consensus is that high-level radioactive waste should be finally disposed of deep underground in geological sites where it can remain sealed off from the surface and atmosphere well into the distant future. Spent nuclear fuel remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
Please read Part 2 next