Further Steps Towards Licensing: Underground Characterisation Started for the Spent Fuel Repository in Finland
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Further Steps Towards Licensing: Underground Characterisation Started for the Spent Fuel Repository in Finland Juhani Vira Posiva Oy 27160 OLKILUOTO Finland ABSTRACT
Pursuant to the Decision-in-Principle of 2001 the Finnish programme for geologic disposal of spent fuel has now moved to the phase of underground characterisation of the repository site. The main objective of this programme phase is to confirm – or refute – the suitability of the Olkiluoto site by investigations conducted underground at the actual depth of the repository. The construction work of the access tunnel to the rock characterisation facility (ONKALO) started in the late summer of 2004. The site research and investigations work aims at the maturity needed for submission of the application for construction license of the actual repository in 2012. This requires, however, that also the technology has reached the maturity needed. The design and technical plans form the necessary platform for the development of the safety case for spent fuel disposal. A plan, "road map", has been produced for the portfolio of reports that should demonstrate the safety of disposal as required by the criteria set by the government and further detailed by the safety authority, STUK.
INTRODUCTION In the year 2001 the Finnish Parliament ratified the decision-in-principle on the disposal of spent fuel from the Finnish nuclear power reactors. According to the decision the repository would be located in crystalline bedrock at Olkiluoto in the municipality of Eurajoki on the western coast of Finland, and the disposal would be based on the KBS-3 concept. The decision means that Posiva, the implementer of the disposal facility for spent fuel in Finland, now sets the next major milestone for the research and technology development (RTD) activities at the submission of the application for the construction license. The guidelines of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (KTM) specify that the maturity for submission should be reached by the end of 2012. One of pre-requisites for the license application is the confirmation of the site suitability through underground characterisation of the intended repository host rock. The construction of an underground rock characterisation facility, ONKALO, has now been started. More than half a kilometre of tunnel length has been excavated by summer 2005 and the implementation of the underground investigations programme is underway. The target depth of the main characterisation level is at 420 metres, but the excavations will continue down to the depth of 520 metres.
In parallel with the ONKALO design, construction and investigations progress is being made in the development of the technology needed for the encapsulation and disposal of the spent fuel. Most of the work is now organised in joint projects with the Swedish SKB, pursuant to the agreement signed between SKB and Posiva in the mid-2001. Both organisations now aim at licensing the construction of the disposal facilities in less than ten years from now – SKB already during the presen
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