THIS underground tunnel will be blocked for 100,000 years because Finland is the first in the world when it comes to nuclear waste.
About 4,000 generations of people will not be able to set foot in the underground tunnel in Eurajoki, on the west coast of Finland.
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A Finnish geological site will be the first in the world to start storing spent nuclear fuel undergroundCredit: Teollisuuden Voima Oyj
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The underground facility will be closed to humans for 100,000 years from 2025. Credit: AFP
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The project in Finland cost £860m and other countries are said to be looking to the facility for inspirationCredit: AFP
This is because the country built the first tomb for spent nuclear fuel.
The site, called Onkalo, has been hailed as a “model for the whole world” when it comes to sustainable nuclear energy storage.
Onkalo is 1,480 meters underground, and the waste will be deposited deep in the rock bed.
The nuclear energy tomb near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant will be officially closed to humans in 2025.
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Some were lucky enough to tour the history-making facility before it closed.
BBC journalist Erika Benke, who walked through the underground tunnel, gave a detailed tour of the site, admitting that the idea of burying “highly radioactive waste for 100,000 years… makes me nervous”.
After finding herself alone in the dark tunnel, Benke said: “I feel a moment of fear – I am standing in a place where, starting in 2025, no human foot should set foot for 100,000 years.”
The group was given protective clothing including helmets fitted with tracking devices and then led through a security door and into an incredibly dark service tunnel.
The group descends into the ground for 15 minutes to reach the Onkalo gas station 1,430 feet underground.
The 2.8 mile long tunnel took them even lower and warned the driver of the 12mph speed limit as well as the usual signs showing how deep they were down.
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“We were shown a demonstration deposition tunnel,” Benke explained.
“Its entrance is much darker than the service area, and the floor is uneven and wet, muddy in places.
“The walls are a bare surface that shimmers in the torchlight.”
Posiva Oy, a radioactive waste management company, is building a disposal system.
Spent nuclear waste will be placed in a cast iron and copper cylinder and then wrapped in bentonite clay to seal the sealed container.
Then there is the tunnel, which fills the voids with swelling clay, sealing the structures to seal off the tunnels and the surrounding area, as well as the surrounding rock.
Each canister will be picked up by robotic vehicles and taken to deposition holes where it will remain forever.
A joint functional test that did not involve the use of nuclear fuel was conducted at the location last year.
After this test, excavation of the first five final disposal tunnels began, Posiva construction manager Juha Riihimaki told World Nuclear News.
“Actual final disposal activities will begin in one of the tunnels around 2025,” he added.
The £860m project has reportedly inspired other countries, including the UK, US, France and Canada, to adopt similar nuclear energy storage solutions, Gareth Law, professor of radiochemistry at the University of Helsinki, told the BBC.
Law is not involved in the project in Finland, but says the country is “at least a decade ahead of everyone else.”
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Source: HIS Education