Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) reported that its review of Posiva Oy’s operating license application for the world’s first spent nuclear fuel disposal facility is taking longer than expected. It will not be completed by the end of 2023 as planned.
Radioactive waste management company Posiva submitted its application and related information to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (TEM) on December 30th of 2021 for an operating license for the spent nuclear fuel encapsulation plant and final disposal facility under construction at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant located in Eurajoki, Region of Satakunta. The underground spent nuclear fuel repository is expected to start operations in the mid-2020s. Posiva is also applying for an operating license for a period from March 2024 to the end of 2070.
The Finnish government will make the final decision on Posiva’s construction application. However, a positive opinion by STUK is required before the government acts. The ministry requested STUK’s opinion on the application by the end of this year. The regulator started its review in May of 2022 after concluding that Posiva had provided sufficient material. However, STUK has now said that its safety assessment and opinion on the application will not be finished this year.
STUK said, "Overall, STUK has progressed well in processing the application for an operating permit, but it is still in progress. The data is large and STUK has also required Posiva to update parts of it. Consequently, the work has lasted longer than expected. When STUK has received the processing of the operating license application material submitted by Posiva, it will prepare a safety assessment, which will be attached to the safety statement prepared for the operating license application.” STUK said that it is preparing to propose to the ministry to postpone the deadline for the submission of its opinion on the application.
STUK said it cannot estimate how long it will take to submit its opinion. Päivi Mäenalanen is STUK’s project manager. He said, “It depends not only on STUK but also on Posiva and how quickly it can deliver the missing material to us. However, there is no question of any dramatic delay.”
The site for Posiva’s repository was chosen in 2000. The Finnish Parliament approved the decision-in-principle on the repository project in 2001. Posiva submitted its construction license application to TEM in December of 2013. The company studied the rock at Olkiluoto. It prepared its license application using results from the Onkalo underground laboratory. The laboratory is being expanded to form the basis for the spent nuclear fuel repository.
The Finnish government granted a construction license for the project in November of 2015. Construction work on the repository began in December of 2016.
Once it receives the operating license, Posiva can begin the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel generated from the operation of Teollisuuden Voima Oyj’s (TVO) Olkiluoto and Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plants. The operation will last for about one hundred years before the nuclear waste repository is closed and permanently sealed.