Countries that use nuclear power to generate electricity store spent nuclear fuel in cooling pools, dry casks above ground or in vaults lined with concrete and steel. Some deep underground repositories have been created but they do not store spent nuclear fuel which is considered to be high-level radioactive waste. The nuclear industry is working hard to sell the world on a new generation of power reactors while the problem of nuclear waste disposal goes unsolved.
The U.S. tried to create a permanent geological repository for spent nuclear fuel under Yucca Mountain in Nevada but the project was cancelled in 2009. It will take at least until 2050 to have such a repository and meanwhile the spent nuclear fuel is piling up at the sites of nuclear power reactors.
Russia experimented with injecting highly radioactive liquid waste into rock formation in the 1960s in a sort of reverse fracking but they never build an actual facility to do it on a regular basis.
Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada have all announced plans for permanent geological repositories but have not been able to find and approve acceptable sites. Even if sites are selected in the near future, none will be open before 2040.
Germany worked for decades on storing nuclear waste in salt deposits at Gorleben but early tests failed when ground water migrated through the storage area. They have just begun searching for a new site to hold the waste from all their nuclear reactors which they are decommissioning.
Sweden has announced formal backing for the creation of a repository at Forsmark for storing spent nuclear fuel in drums in a deep facility.
France is also working on creation of a repository. The French nuclear waste agency called ANDRA intends to request a license for a facility in Bure in 2017. The French are going to vitrify (a process where the waste is solidified with sand into glass logs) their waste.
Finland is working hard on the creation of a permanent nuclear waste repository deep underground after spending thirty years selecting a site for the project. The location for the repository is an island off Finland's west coast named Olkiluoto. Over thirty two billion dollars is being spent digging a system of tunnels through granite bedrock. Sixty five hundred tons of uranium is going to be sealed in copper canisters and placed in the tunnels. The repository is projected to be filled and sealed by 2120. It should be able to isolate the waste for hundreds of thousands of years after which the radiation will have burned itself out.
Finland was able to get their project going where other countries have had a lot of delays and problems because they engaged the community at time when there was more trust in authorities and less paranoia about radioactive waste than is the case today. They emphasized the safety of their project and the economic benefits and ultimate won over the ruling council at Olkiluoto. Other countries are trying to learn from the Finnish approach in order to secure sites for the disposal of their spent nuclear fuel.
Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant:
