Company type | Oy |
---|---|
Industry | Energy |
Founded | 1995 |
Headquarters | Eurajoki, Finland |
Products | Nuclear waste management |
Owner | Teollisuuden Voima and Fortum |
Website | www |
Posiva Oy is a Finnish company with headquarters in the municipality of Eurajoki, Finland. It was founded in 1995 by Teollisuuden Voima (60% of stock) and Fortum (40% of stock), [1] two Finnish nuclear plant operators, for researching and creating a method of final disposal of spent nuclear fuel from their plants. [2] [3] [4]
For this purpose, Posiva is currently constructing the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository, the world's first deep geological repository, at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant site.
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The site is on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 mi (130 km) northwest of the Las Vegas Valley.
Eurajoki is a municipality of Finland located in the region of Satakunta in the province of Western Finland. The municipality has a population of 9,143 and covers an area of 1,504.96 square kilometres (581.07 sq mi) of which 298.39 km2 (115.21 sq mi) is water. The population density is 17.75 inhabitants per square kilometre (46.0/sq mi).
KBS-3 is a technology for disposal of high-level radioactive waste developed in Sweden by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) by appointment from Statens Strålskyddsinstitut. The technology was developed by studying different natural storage facilities such as the natural reactor in Oklo, Gabon and the uranium mine in Cigar Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. The general theory is that radioactive rock in these sites has been present for thousands of years, and has not affected the health and well-being of human populations. KBS-3 is also to be used in Finland at the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository, being built by Posiva.
Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (54.37%), Banque publique d'investissement (3.32%), and Agence des participations de l'État (28.83%). Électricité de France, of which the French government has a majority ownership stake, owned 2.24%; Kuwait Investment Authority owned 4.82% as the second largest shareholder after the French state.
Fortum Oyj is a Finnish state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. It mainly focuses on the Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, including co-generation plants, and generates and sells electricity and heat. The company also sells waste services such as recycling, reutilisation, final disposal solutions and soil remediation and environmental constructions services, and other energy-related services and products e.g. consultancy services for power plants and electric vehicle charging. Fortum is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange.
The EPR is a Generation III+ pressurised water reactor design. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and by Siemens in Germany. In Europe this reactor design was called European Pressurised Reactor, and the internationalised name was Evolutionary Power Reactor, but is now simply named EPR.
The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant is one of Finland's two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unit Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant. The plant is owned and operated by Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), and is located on Olkiluoto Island, on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the town of Rauma and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the city of Pori.
Features, Events, and Processes (FEP) are terms used in the fields of radioactive waste management, carbon capture and storage, and hydraulic fracturing to define relevant scenarios for safety assessment studies. For a radioactive waste repository, features would include the characteristics of the site, such as the type of soil or geological formation the repository is to be built on or under. Events would include things that may or will occur in the future, like, e.g., glaciations, droughts, earthquakes, or formation of faults. Processes are things that are ongoing, such as the erosion or subsidence of the landform where the site is located on, or near.
A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment, typically 200–1,000 m below the surface of the earth. It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals and geology that is suited to provide a high level of long-term isolation and containment without future maintenance. This is intended to prevent radioactive dangers. A number of mercury, cyanide and arsenic waste repositories are operating worldwide including Canada and Germany. Radioactive waste storage sites are under construction with the Onkalo in Finland being the most advanced.
As of 2023, Finland has five operating nuclear reactors in two power plants, all located on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Nuclear power provided about 34% of the country's electricity generation in 2020. The first research nuclear reactor in Finland was commissioned in 1962 and the first commercial reactor started operation in 1977. The fifth reactor started operation in April 2023.
Nuclear decommissioning is the process leading to the irreversible complete or partial closure of a nuclear facility, usually a nuclear reactor, with the ultimate aim at termination of the operating licence. The process usually runs according to a decommissioning plan, including the whole or partial dismantling and decontamination of the facility, ideally resulting in restoration of the environment up to greenfield status. The decommissioning plan is fulfilled when the approved end state of the facility has been reached.
The Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is located close to the Finnish town of Loviisa. It houses two Soviet-designed VVER-440 pressurised water reactors, with capacities of 507 MW each. It is one of Finland's two operating nuclear power plants, the other being the three-unit Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant.
Nuclear power in the European Union accounted for approximately 26% of total electricity production in 2019 and nearly half of low-carbon energy production across the EU.
Energy in Finland describes energy and electricity production, consumption and import in Finland. Energy policy of Finland describes the politics of Finland related to energy. Electricity sector in Finland is the main article regarding electricity in Finland.
High-level radioactive waste management addresses the handling of radioactive materials generated from nuclear power production and nuclear weapons manufacture. Radioactive waste contains both short-lived and long-lived radionuclides, as well as non-radioactive nuclides. In 2002, the United States stored approximately 47,000 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste.
Into Eternity is a 2010 Danish documentary film directed by Michael Madsen, released in 2010. It follows the construction of the Onkalo waste repository at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant on the island of Olkiluoto, Finland. Director Michael Madsen questions Onkalo's intended eternal existence, addressing an audience in the remote future.
The electricity sector in Finland relies on nuclear power, renewable energy, cogeneration and electricity import from neighboring countries. Finland has the highest per-capita electricity consumption in the EU. Co-generation of heat and electricity for industry process heat and district heating is common. Finland is one of the last countries in the world still burning peat.
National nuclear energy policy is a national policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy, such as mining for nuclear fuel, extraction and processing of nuclear fuel from the ore, generating electricity by nuclear power, enriching and storing spent nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel reprocessing. Nuclear energy policies often include the regulation of energy use and standards relating to the nuclear fuel cycle.
The Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository is a deep geological repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. It is near the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in the municipality of Eurajoki, on the west coast of Finland. It will be the world's first long-term disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel. It is being constructed by Posiva, and is based on the KBS-3 method of nuclear waste burial developed in Sweden by Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB). The facility is expected to be operational in the mid 2020s.
A Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future was appointed by President Obama to look into future options for existing and future nuclear waste, following the ending of work on the incomplete Yucca Mountain Repository. At present, there are 70 nuclear power plant sites where 65,000 tons of spent fuel is stored in the USA. Each year, more than 2,000 tons are added to this total. Nine states have "explicit moratoria on new nuclear power until a storage solution emerges". A deep geological repository seems to be the favored approach to storing nuclear waste.