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2024-04-02 Science & Technology

Finland to Bury Nuclear Waste for 100,000 Years

[BBC, hat tip Red State] Nuclear energy currently provides about 10% of the world's electricity. Being low-carbon, it's seen by many as an important player in the fight against climate change.

But it has also remained controversial in many countries due to its high cost and long build times, as well as concerns over the safety of nuclear reactors and the unresolved issue of what to do with nuclear waste.

"Onkalo" is a Finnish word for a cave or a hollow. It's a fitting name for a huge grave made in Finland over the last 20 years. Onkalo, which lies 450m (1,500ft) deep inside the bedrock of Olkiluoto island in the southwest of the country, is the world's first permanent storage site for spent nuclear.

Onkalo has cost €1bn (£860m/$1.07bn) to build and is expected to begin operations in about two years. Its arrival has been hailed as a game changer by many, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "Everybody knew of the idea of a geological repository for high-level radioactive nuclear waste, but Finland did it," commented Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA director general, on a visit to the site in 2020.

The Onkalo repository is based on the KBS-3 concept developed by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, in cooperation with Posiva. The idea is to create three barriers around nuclear waste: first, put it in copper canisters, then wrap the canisters in bentonite — a water-absorbing clay — and finally, bury them in tunnels deep in the bedrock.

"We've all benefited from nuclear energy for over 60 years," says Lewis Blackburn, a lecturer in nuclear materials at the University of Sheffield in the UK. "It's our generation of scientists' and engineers' responsibility to undertake the challenge to dispose of the waste, instead of leaving it to future generations.

Location

Posted by Bobby 2024-04-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11148 views ] Top

#1 Finland school shooting [by 12y/o] leaves multiple wounded, suspect arrested

Posted by Skidmark 2024-04-02 09:24|| 2024-04-02 09:24|| Front Page Top

#2 Yucca Mountain remains in limbo for reasons that defy logic, but not EPA concerns about the 10,000 year radiation dosage levels...
"One point of concern has been the standard of radiation emission in 10,000 to 1,000,000 years. On August 9, 2005, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a limit of 350 millirem per year for that period.[49] In October 2007, the DOE issued a draft of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement showing that for the first 10,000 years mean public dose would be 0.24 mrem/year and that thereafter the median public dose would be 0.98 mrem/year, both of which are substantially below the proposed EPA limit. For comparison, a hip X-ray results in a dose around 83 mrem and a CT head or chest scan results in around 1,110 mrem.[50] Annually, in the United States, an individual's dose from background radiation is about 350 mrem, though some places get more than twice that.[51][52]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository

Posted by NoMoreBS 2024-04-02 13:20|| 2024-04-02 13:20|| Front Page Top

#3 As I recall from my time in NV [82-95], the trains that would haul the East Coast waste go through a number of political cities: St. Louis, KC, Vegas, etc. Apparently some hesitancy for rail transport and then offloading mobile containers for rough road transport. For some reason using the test cavities at the National Test Site in Mercury NV was/is also a nono.

Posted by Skidmark 2024-04-02 17:23|| 2024-04-02 17:23|| Front Page Top

#4 DoE made almost impregnable cars for transport. Spillage should not be a problem.

Posted by Procopius2k 2024-04-02 20:27|| 2024-04-02 20:27|| Front Page Top

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