The world-first facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel is set to begin operations in Finland after decades of construction. Construction of Onkalo — which means “cave” in Finnish — began on the west coast in 2004 as the site for the final resting place for tons of dangerous radioactive waste. Costing 1 billion euros ($1.
At least 182 killed as Israel strikes central Beirut after saying Iran truce doesn't apply thereRex Heuermann pleads guilty to murder charges and admits he killed 8 women in the Gilgo Beach caseHow Trump moved from threats to a ceasefire with IranBrawl breaks out between Braves pitcher Reynaldo López and Angels slugger Jorge Soler'Ketamine Queen' gets 15 years in prison for selling Matthew Perry the drugs that killed him 'Malcolm in the Middle' returns after 20 years with questions of legacy and its trademark crazinessNewly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump's announcementViral phenomenon in Argentina has young people identifying themselves as animalsChesney the kangaroo scales tall fence and flees petting zoo for three days on the lamYou aren't the only one who just sits in the car before or after a long dayInspired by Picasso, an AP photographer visualizes a blind person ‘seeing’ art A photo captures black spots on clothespins that reveal the environmental toll of conflict in Tehran'I'm going there.
' Oil drilling fuels a migrant surge in isolated city in Brazil's AmazonYou aren't the only one who just sits in the car before or after a long dayWorries about flying seem to be taking off. Here's how to cope with in-flight anxietyWomen in perimenopause dealing with hot flashes and sleep issues are being courted to buy productsAI is giving bad advice to flatter its users, says new study on dangers of overly agreeable chatbotsA project to save rural synagogues grows from Maine to MontanaEEUU e Irán acuerdan un alto el fuego de dos semanas mientras Trump aprovecha una salida diplomáticaCeasefire is threatened as Israel expands Lebanon strikes and Iran closes strait again ' Oil drilling fuels a migrant surge in isolated city in Brazil's AmazonYou aren't the only one who just sits in the car before or after a long dayWorries about flying seem to be taking off. Here's how to cope with in-flight anxietyWomen in perimenopause dealing with hot flashes and sleep issues are being courted to buy productsAI is giving bad advice to flatter its users, says new study on dangers of overly agreeable chatbotsA project to save rural synagogues grows from Maine to MontanaEEUU e Irán acuerdan un alto el fuego de dos semanas mientras Trump aprovecha una salida diplomática Alto el fuego en riesgo: Israel amplía ataques a Líbano e Irán vuelve a cerrar el estrecho de OrmuzAfter decades of construction, the world’s first facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel is set to begin operations in Finland, becoming a final resting place for tons of dangerous radioactive waste. Construction of Onkalo — which means “cave” in Finnish — began on the west coast in 2004. It sits on the secluded island of Olkiluoto, in a dense wooded area. The closest town is Eurajoki, about 15 kilometers inland, which is home to about 9,000 people. Many work at the power plant or storage facility. Geologist Tuomas Pere walks down a disposal tunnel inside the Posiva Onkalo nuclear waste repository on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A trial copper casing is placed at Posiva’s encapsulation plant on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Piping photographed in Olkiluoto 3 , Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, during a press tour on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A member of the media stands in the turbine hall of Olkiluoto 3 , Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, during a press tour on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. After decades of construction, the world’s first facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel is set to begin operations in Finland, becoming a final resting place for tons of dangerous radioactive waste. Construction of Onkalo — which means “cave” in Finnish — began on the west coast in 2004. It sits on the secluded island of Olkiluoto, in a dense wooded area. The closest town is Eurajoki, about 15 kilometers inland, which is home to about 9,000 people. Many work at the power plant or storage facility. Add AP News on GoogleGeologist Tuomas Pere walks down a disposal tunnel inside the Posiva Onkalo nuclear waste repository on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Geologist Tuomas Pere walks down a disposal tunnel inside the Posiva Onkalo nuclear waste repository on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A trial copper casing is placed at Posiva’s encapsulation plant on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A trial copper casing is placed at Posiva’s encapsulation plant on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Piping photographed in Olkiluoto 3 , Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, during a press tour on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Piping photographed in Olkiluoto 3 , Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, during a press tour on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A member of the media stands in the turbine hall of Olkiluoto 3 , Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, during a press tour on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A member of the media stands in the turbine hall of Olkiluoto 3 , Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, during a press tour on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Add AP News on GoogleOLKILUOTO, Finland — With the push of a button, the elevator descends hundreds of meters in seconds into the dark depths of Onkalo. “We are now at about minus 430 meters ,” muttered geologist Tuomas Pere as he steered a car through a labyrinth of man-made tunnels. “We are driving through 1.9-billion year old bedrock.”, in a dense wooded area. The closest town is Eurajoki, about 15 kilometers inland, which is home to about 9,000 people. Many work at the nuclear power plant or storage facility. The 1 billion euro project could soon become operational, with authorities expected to grant a license within months.“It’s the isolation from civilization and mankind on the surface that’s important,” he said, standing in a darkened disposal tunnel, soon to be sealed from humanity. “We can dispose of the waste more safely than by storing it in facilities located on the ground.” Using unmanned machinery at a nearby encapsulation plant, radioactive rods will be sealed in copper canisters and then buried deep in tunnels over 400 meters underground, then packed in with “buffer” layers of water-absorbing bentonite clay.Posiva, the company responsible for the long-term management of Finland’s spent nuclear fuels, says Onkalo can store 6,500 tons of spent nuclear fuel. The final disposal canisters are designed to remain sealed “long enough for the radioactivity of spent fuel to decrease to a level not harmful to the environment,” it said. “The solution that we have, it’s the missing point for sustainable use of nuclear energy,” said Posiva communications manager Pasi Tuohimaa. Finnish nuclear power companies are paying for the project, he said, adding that they have saved money for decades for that purpose. Posiva estimate it will take hundreds of thousands of years before the radioactivity falls to normal, background levels. According to a 2022 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, almost 400,000 tons of spent fuel have been produced globally since the 1950s, with two-thirds remaining in temporary storage and one third being recycled in a complex process. The world’s spent nuclear fuel is currently temporarily stored inside spent nuclear fuel pools at individual reactors and at dry cask storage sites above ground. There is currently no permanent underground disposal facility for commercial nuclear waste operational anywhere in the world. Sweden began building a repository in Forsmark — about 150 kilometers north of Stockholm — last year, but it’s not expected to open until the late 2030s. France’s Cigéo project is yet to begin construction and has seen opposition.But Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an American nonprofit organization, warned that geologic disposal of nuclear waste is still fraught with “uncertainties.” “My view of nuclear waste disposal is that there’s no good option, but it’s important to find the least bad option, and geologic disposal in general is going to be the least bad option among a range of, you know, bad options,” he said. Lyman said that the copper canisters that contain the spent nuclear fuel will eventually corrode, adding that there are different scientific opinions about how fast that could happen. “The hope is that is such a slow process that most of the radioactive material will have decayed away by then. But again, there are uncertainties,” he said. Still, Lyman said that permanently storing spent nuclear fuel deep underground is better than “leaving it on the surface of the Earth forever,” because nuclear material kept above ground “is vulnerable to sabotage.” “For many decades after spent fuel is discharged from a reactor, it’s so radioactive that it makes transporting and reprocessing very difficult,” Lyman said. But eventually the main radioactive component will decay, he added, making it less risky to handle. “So over time the plutonium becomes more accessible either to terrorists or to a country that may want to use it,” he said, adding that the only way a terrorist -- or a state -- could theoretically use the material for a nuclear bomb would be if they had “an off-site reprocessing capability.” During reprocessing, spent nuclear fuel is separated to recover uranium and plutonium to recycle it for use in new fuel. The process also carries proliferation risks because the separated plutonium could potentially be diverted to build a nuclear weapon. Overall, the risks associated with nuclear waste repositories will mainly affect “future generations,” Lyman concluded. To deal with this challenge, an interdisciplinary field of study called nuclear semiotics has been established that looks into developing warning signs about nuclear waste repositories that can be understood by humans 10,000 years from now — or much longer given that it takes hundreds of thousands of years before nuclear waste is no longer dangerous. For reference: the first humans lived around 300,000 years ago. The earliest writing system was developed in Mesopotamia roughly 5,200 to 5,400 years ago. Stonehenge in Britain is around 5,000 years old, while the Giza pyramids in Egypt are approximately 4,500 years old.Austrian artist and inventor Martin Kunze has led an expert group on long-term information preservation at the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He has developed a system that he calls the “nuclear message” — crucial information for future generations that is printed on a solid ceramic plate below a hard glazed surface. Kunze said that the ceramic plates are “inexpensive and very robust” and should ideally be buried “in large numbers” in the area around the repository as well as “inside the foundations” of every house in the community. The goal should be to distribute as many ceramic plates in the area as possible. Finnish officials say the Onkalo nuclear repository reflects the country’s long-term approach to nuclear energy policy. A 1994 act required radioactive waste generated in Finland to be handled, stored and permanently disposed of within the country’s borders. “Back then… some of the waste was still exported, but we wanted to take care of it ourselves,” said Sari Multala, Finland’s environment minister. “We also stick to the decisions, unlike many other countries.” Multala did not rule out eventually accepting limited amounts of nuclear waste from other countries. “In the small scale there could be some kind of possibilities, as long as it is allowed by the international regulators,” she said.292
Nuclear Power General News International News Terrorism World News Energy Industry Technology Martin Kunze Recycling Edwin Lyman World News
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Bill Belichick Sued Over Alleged Unsafe Construction Practices at Nantucket HomeFormer North Carolina Tar Heels football coach Bill Belichick is facing a lawsuit over an alleged incident at his Nantucket home in June 2024. The lawsuit, filed by a painter, claims unsafe construction practices led to the painter's fall and resulting injuries, including a severe right ankle injury. The suit alleges Belichick's company, Forty Five Fair Street LLC, breached its duties in maintaining a safe work environment, leading to the painter seeking nearly $300,000 in damages.
Read more »
Mukilteo Speedway paving about to start, bringing more than a year of constructionChris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. He cares deeply about the amount of time you spend sitting in Seattle traffic. Email Chris at csullivankiroradio.com
Read more »
Layne’s Chicken Fingers plans construction for new restaurant in Leon ValleyConstruction on a new Layne’s Chicken Fingers located in Leon Valley is scheduled to start next month, according to the Texas Department Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).
Read more »
The solution to America's ongoing housing crisis starts with constructionToday's Video Headlines: 04/07/26
Read more »
My NYC apartment is stuck in construction hell — not that I'm complainingA New York story: My apartment. I have lived in it since before Washington wet his drawers splashing into the Delaware.
Read more »
Dothan city hall construction reaches milestone with topping-out ceremonyThe city center, located across from the Houston County Courthouse, will serve as a central hub for Dothan, housing several departments as well as the city commission.
Read more »