Finland: Posiva Solutions to assist Fennovoima in nuclear waste disposal
The nuclear waste disposal firm Posiva Solutions has announced that it will provide assistance to Finnish nuclear power company Fennovoima in disposal of its spent nuclear fuel waste.
However, Posiva Solutions has not yet confirmed it would be involved in the final disposal of waste from the proposed Hanhikivi nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki a decade from now.
Posiva Solutions Oy will provide Fennovoima with services of planning and developing of the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel from the planned but not-yet-approved Hanhikivi nuclear power plant, the firm announced on Wednesday.
Further negotiations needed
But while the agreement between the two firms includes selecting a final disposal site for the plant’s toxic nuclear waste, it said the duration of the agreement is currently ten years and that further negotiations would need to take place.
“The agreement covers technical expert services relating to the site selection of the final disposal site. The duration of the agreement now made is ten years, after which it is possible to separately agree on practical implementations of the following steps,” Posiva said in a press release issued Wednesday.
Fennovoima’s final waste disposal project is anticipated to stretch out over decades. The deadline to decide where, exactly, the waste will be stored will take place sometime during the 2040s and the actual disposal at the yet-to-be-announced facility would begin in 2090 at the earliest.
It remains unclear whether Fennovoima will be granted permission from regulators to advance its plans to build a reactor in Pyhäjoki.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Drilling waste thawing and leaching into lakes in Canada’s Far North, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Finland OKs disposal cave for nuclear waste, Yle News
Greenland: Study finds increase in litter on Arctic seafloor, Blog by Mia Bennett
Norway: Norway is polluting Murmansk says Russian official, Barents Observer
Russia: Russian republics unite against oil spills, The Independent Barents Observer
