Although they are nearly at the final depth, the work thus far has been primarily to construct the 4-km long access tunnel. The facility is not scheduled to accept the nuclear waste until 2020 but once it does, it will have enough space for about 7 reactor’s worth of spent fuel for 100-years of their operation. That would put final sealing of the facility in 2120. One interesting thing that caught my attention is that according to Posiva, the agency responsible for facility, after 500 years the radiation dose standing next to one of the canisters would be equivalent to a CAT Scan. [Source: hs.fi via Ontario-geofish]
Miscellaneous
Arizona Geologic Survey Releases Preliminary Report on Carbon Sequestration Potential
Carbon sequestration is a hot topic these days, and the Arizona Geologic Survey (AZGS) is working with a consortium of public and private agencies and non-profits to evaluate the potential of CO2 storage in Cenozoic […]
Project Related
Inside Finland’s Nuclear Waste Repository
Finland has the world’s first commercial underground nuclear waste repository, and construction of the access works, infrastructure, and the first five disposal tunnels is essentially complete. I haven’t seen a timeline of when they will […]
Rockman's Ramblings
Indefinite “Temporary” Nuclear Waste Storage and the Need for Nuclear Power
Since the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has gotten the axe from President Obama, nuclear power plants around the country are faced with the prospect of virtually indefinite "temporary" storage of their nuclear waste in the form of spent fuel rods. The US Department of Energy has a legal obligation to find a permanent disposal facility for the spent fuel, and the agreements currently in place presumed that Yucca Mountain would be accepting nuclear waste by 2025 which clearly won’t happen. (Photo of dry cask temporary storage method for spent nuclear fuel from Connecticut Yankee). More after the break. […]