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For decades, the US government has been staring at growing issues. There is no permanent site to dispose of used nuclear fuel.
However, Finland is likely to be the first country.
Posiva Oy, a joint venture owned by two Finnish nuclear companies, is set up as the world's first permanent underground disposal site for spent nuclear fuel, and is in line for officially launched businesses. The Times reported on their plans in 2017.
Posiva has been working on the site on the West Coast since 2004 and hopes to begin permanent disposal within less than a year.
“We have a solution,” said Pasi Tuohimaa, communications manager at Posiva. “The final disposal of spent fuel was a lack of sustainable use of nuclear energy.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard debate in a lawsuit over a federal decision to approve temporary storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in Texas. The lawsuit highlights plans to store nuclear waste under Mount Yucca in Nevada, the only permanent storage site in the United States permitted by federal law.
The World Nuclear Association estimates that the amount of nuclear fuel currently used in the United States will only fill half of the soccer field. But as electricity demand increases, the nuclear industry is passing through something like a Renaissance.
How Posiva Storage Plan works
The barriers to permanently preserving nuclear waste are less technical than planning and politics. Permanent nuclear waste storage facilities can take decades to research and build.
Posiva excavates a collective 10-kilometer tunnel at its free-use location, Tuohimaa said. The company's plan is to insert spent fuel pellets into rods found in iron or copper cans. The container is then stored in the basement for hundreds of meters, surrounded by compressed bentonite. This is a type of clay that swells when contacted with moisture and essentially tightens the area around the container. The tunnel is then backfilled.
“The main thing is to isolate it safely,” Tuohimaa said.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority says that US spent nuclear fuel can now be temporarily stored in special pools or dry barrels in nuclear analysis facilities. They may also be stored on an independent storage site if approved by the committee. This is one of the main issues that have advanced to the Supreme Court.
However, for temporary storage, there is a large price tag. The federal government currently pays hundreds of millions of dollars a year for temporary storage of spent fuel.
Where permanent storage advances from here
In Finland, which has acquired more than 40% of its electricity from nuclear energy, Posiva is currently offering a trial version using a fill-in element.
Other countries follow in the footsteps of Finland. France, Sweden and Switzerland have selected sites for planned projects, and other projects have been proposed in China, Canada, Germany, Hungary, the UK and Japan, according to the World Nuclear Association.
And then there was talk of revisiting plans for the Yucca Mountain Site in the US. Last year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle became toys by rethinking ideas.
More Climate Correction News:
According to Ember, an energy think tank, wind and solar are coal: it was the first time last year that it combined wind and solar to generate more electricity than the US. Wind and solar accounted for 17% of US electricity last year. Coal contributed to a record low of 15%.
Last year, 81% of the new power capacity came from solar.
Post-urban cities in Europe: “European cities are dramatically reducing their relationship with cars,” writes The Washington Post. “They're removing parking spaces and creating dedicated bike lanes. They're installing cameras on urban boundaries to either charge the most contaminated vehicles or prevent them from entering. Some people are trying to leave the whole neighborhood to the vehicle.”
Great Britain's cuts: British emissions fell 3.6% last year, and the use of coal has dropped to its lowest level since 1666, the year of the major fire, according to carbon brief analysis.
Germany too: The country's Environment Agency reported that greenhouse gas emissions in Europe's largest economy fell by about 3.4% last year, Reuters reported.
Brazil's Bold Plan: “Brazil is planning to launch an ambitious $125 billion fund to protect tropical forests when it hosts the COP30 Climate Summit this November,” reports Bloomberg.
Last year, The Times reported on the eternal facility in Brazil's tropical forests. This idea has been hailed as a potential breakthrough in funding for tropical forest preservation.
Nuclear Commitment: By 2050 Amazon, Google and Meta are acquiring nuclear capabilities around the world, CNBC reports.
