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Finnish Company Claims Its Copper Canisters Can Store Nuclear Waste for 100,000 Years | Popular Science
While the fate of America's Yucca Mountain appears to be sealed, Finnish company Posiva is moving forward with a cutting-edge nuclear waste storage facility that it claims will safely store radioactive waste in drums deep in the ground for 100,000 years. While challenges abound, a green light from the Finnish government expected by 2012 will make the site on Finland's Olkiluoto Island the first permanent nuclear waste repository in the world, opening the door for more to follow.
The task is not a small one, however. First, Posiva carved nearly 16,500 feet of tunnels, collecting borehole samples along the way to ensure that the bedrock is solid and that water -- a nuclear waste repository's biggest enemy -- cannot get in. Then they had to figure out how to create the nearly 29-ton copper storage bins lined with iron and sealed with a weld so precise that it will hold through Finland's next ice age.
AFP: Greenpeace boards reactor equipment ship
Six Greenpeace activists Monday boarded a ship carrying French-made steam turbines bound for a new nuclear power station in Finland, the environmental group said.
The protestors climbed on board the Happy Ranger as it made its way through the Fehmarn Belt strait between Denmark and Germany and unfurled banners including one which read "Nuclear madness, made in France".
Greenpeace wants construction halted on a third-generation nuclear reactor currently being built at Olkiluoto, in southwest Finland, by the French company Areva.
TVO: Start-up of Europe’s First EPR Postponed to Mid-2012 :: POWER Magazine
Start-up of Europe’s first EPR nuclear power plant, the Olkiluoto 3 under construction in Finland, has been postponed beyond June 2012 because civil construction is taking longer than was previously estimated, according plant owner Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO). Finland’s nuclear regulatory agency has, meanwhile, called attention to “deficiencies” in the welding of the plant’s cooling system, potentially causing further delays.
The Finnish utility said last week that the plant’s supplier, an AREVA-Siemens Energy consortium, is responsible for the current schedule, and that it has requested a re-analysis of the anticipated start-up date.
Work on the long-awaited nuclear power project began in 2005, and the plant was originally due to come online in 2009, but the project has been consistently plagued with faulty materials and planning problems. AREVA in September revealed that the total cost of the flagship third-generation reactor had risen to some €5.3 billion—up from the originally estimated cost of €3 billion. Costs could go up even more because of timeline uncertainties.
Nuclear power: The consumer always pays | Environment | The Guardian
Model for new UK reactors reveals damaging disagreements between Finland and French contractors
From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the warehouse by the offices on Finland's Olkiluoto island, site of what should have been the world's first modern nuclear reactor. But inside, stacked on five kilometres of shelving, are 160,000 documents. "If a valve for the reactor is changed, it comes in a small box and a van full of documents," complains Jouni Silvennoinen, project director for Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the Finnish utility that ordered the plant from the Franco-German consortium Areva-Siemens.
The paper mountain helps explain why the reactor, which should have cost €3bn (£2.72bn) and been working this year, will now miss its revised completion date of mid-2012 and will cost at least €5.3bn. In the latest delay, Finland's nuclear safety regulator halted welding on the reactor last week and criticised poor oversight by the sub-contractor, supplier and TVO.
NewsRoom Finland: Finland's Posiva to dig world's first final repository of nuclear waste in bedrock
Finnish nuclear waste management company Posiva said Thursday it would file a construction licence application in 2012 to excavate the world's first final repository of nuclear waste in bedrock.
Reijo Sundel, the managing director of Posiva, said construction was slated to begin in 2014, with commissioning scheduled for 2020.
The repository in Olkiluoto in western Finland is to be used to store about 12,000 tonnes of spent fuel.
Finnish nuclear power debate gathers pace
The Finnish debate about the number of nuclear power stations to be built over the next couple of decades flared up on Wednesday with Mauri Pekkarinen (centre), the economic affairs minister, calling for caution in granting building permission for more than one unit.
He said at an energy seminar in Helsinki that while the replacement of coal-fired power station meant one extra nuclear unit was needed there were no grounds to approve the construction of several.
Mr Pekkarinen added that existing capacity and power stations under construction at the moment could sate projected demand until the 2020s.
Jyrki Katainen (cons), the finance minister, had repeated that the government should propose the approval of all three nuclear power station applications.
The Green League, part of the centre-right-led coalition, said even a single new nuclear power station was unnecessary.
Nuclear Engineering International: Radioactive discharges have lower environmental impact than thermal discharges, says Finnish study
A doctoral thesis by Erkki Ilus of the Finnish radiation and nuclear safety authority (STUK) shows that radioactive discharges from nuclear power plants have a minor impact compared to the effects of thermal discharges.
The results are based on hydrobiological and radioecological analyses from monitoring programmes and environmental studies carried out during more than 40 years in the sea areas surrounding the two Finnish nuclear power plants, Loviisa and Olkiluoto.
More Delays at Finnish Nuclear Plant - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com
Areva, a French nuclear construction company, said this week that its project to build the world’s most powerful reactor remained mired in delays and was over-budget by 2.3 billion euros, or about $3.3 billion.
The price tag of the plant in Olkiluoto, Finland — the first of a fleet of so-called evolutionary power reactors that Areva foresees building in coming years — was about $4.3 billion in 2003 and costs have steadily increased.
The reactor was meant to have gone online early this summer but Areva no longer is committing to any dates for its completion. Patrice Lambert de Diesbach, an energy analyst with CM-CIC Securities in Paris, said the latest developments were “bad news” for Areva and “should be sanctioned by the market.”
AFP: Finland denies missing ship carries nuclear material
Finnish authorities dismissed talk Sunday that the Arctic Sea was bearing a cargo of nuclear material, as Russia and NATO joined forces in an international hunt for the missing vessel.
Jukka Laaksonen, head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, said firefighters conducted radiation tests on the ship -- last reported off Cape Verde -- at a port in Finland before it began a voyage full of intrigue.
Arctic Sea surrounded by nuclear, ransom mysteries
Finnish officials have rejected claims that a missing Russian-manned freighter was carrying a 'secret nuclear cargo', as mystery surrounding the Arctic Sea's disappearance continues.
Russia and NATO joined forces on Sunday in an international hunt for the ship that vanished from the radar after crossing the English Channel in late July.
Jukka Laaksonen, Head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, confirmed reports that firefighters had conducted radiation tests on the Arctic Sea before its departure from Finland.
Demonstrations In Helsinki And Tampere Against Uranium Mining | News | YLE Uutiset | yle.fi
Protesters gathered in Helsinki and Tampere on Thursday to lend support to residents of Ranua, in Finnish Lapland, who oppose plans for uranium mining in the area.
The French energy group Areva has filed an application with the Ministry Employment and the Economy for a uranium mining claim at Ranua, just south of Rovaniemi. If granted, the claim would allow Areva to carrying out prospecting in the area.
According to a local activisit, Kaisa Kaikkonen, granting the claim could force residents of the area to live for decades in fear of the start-up of uranium mining.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Nuclear dawn delayed in Finland
When it is finished, Finland's Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor will be the biggest the world has ever seen, the excavation site alone is the size of 55 football fields.
It was to have been a pilot project for bigger, better, cleaner, Generation III reactors, which would lead the charge back to nuclear power in a continent which had gone cold on atomic energy after the accidents at Chernobyl and Thee Mile Island.
AFP: Poor plans halted Finnish nuke reactor: officials
Poor planning has led to rising costs and huge delays for a nuclear reactor going up in Finland, the country's biggest-ever construction project, officials have said.
The plant on the island of Olkiluoto in western Finland, to be run by Finnish nuclear power company TVO, was meant to start production this summer.
But it is now not expected to open for another three years and Finnish authorities cannot hide their disappointment with Areva-Siemens, the Franco-German contractor running the building operations.
Ecologist: Finland's safety fears over next-generation nuclear reactor - The Ecologist
Safety concerns may halt construction of a new nuclear facility in Finland, posing questions about the viability of the next generation of European Pressurised Reactors destined for the UK
Finland’s nuclear regulatory body may halt construction of the country’s new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) amid ‘great concern’ over key safety systems. The concerns will be echoed in the UK, where the Government hopes to have the first of four new EPRs built by 2017.
A major selling point of the new generation nuclear reactors had been their safety systems, a vital consideration as they will produce more radiation than current reactors.
Doubts over the safety of Olkiluoto 3, being built on an island off western Finland, were raised by the director general of STUK, Finland’s radiation and nuclear safety authority.
Helsingin Sanomat - Olkiluoto III hasn't quite gone according to plan
Had everything gone the way it was supposed to, then the suits, scissors, and silk ribbons should be being made ready for the inauguration of the third reactor at the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant on Finland’s west coast.
But the schedules did not hold up, and according to the current estimates the Olkiluoto III nuclear facility - Finland's fifth reactor - will be completed no earlier than the summer of 2012.
In other words, the supposedly four-year stint looks to be lasting a minimum of seven years.
A ghost of nuclear’s future in Finland? | Business News | STLtoday
It’s been a month since AmerenUE declared that it was suspending plans to build a second nuclear plant in Missouri after efforts to repeal the state’s ban on construction work in progress (CWIP) failed.
Backers of the legislation said Missourians missed a golden opportunity to secure its low-carbon future, and wean the state off its coal addiction (one that could be significantly more expensive if Congress follows through on climate change legislation).
AmerenUE had decided whether to go through with plans to build another nuclear plant. In case it did, the plant design it chose was Areva NP’s Evolutinary Power Reactor, EPR for short. (Areva was an owner of UniStar Nuclear, which had contracted with AmerenUE to help prepare the construction and operating license that was submitted to federal regulators last summer.)
New Finnish reactor lacks 'a proper design that meets the basic principles of nuclear safety' | Greenpeace UK
The OL3 European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) project, under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland, is seen by the nuclear industry as the blueprint for a new generation of reactors they'd like to see being built all over the world.
Already well behind schedule and way over cost, serious problems were uncovered two days ago in the primary coolant pipes, only a week after documents leaked to Finnish media revealed that designs for the most vital and fundamental part of this untried and untested nuclear reactor - the safety systems - are still not yet in place.
NewsRoom Finland: Finnish nuclear watchdog stops welding at Olkiluoto site
Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) said Tuesday it had ordered a halt on welding at the Olkiluoto nuclear power station building site.
The watchdog added that French nuclear power group Areva, the supplier of the power station, had discovered small cracks on pipes forming part of the station's primary cooling circuit.
Nuclear plans in doubt after safety concerns | SNP - Scottish National Party
Commenting on official safety fears which have thrown the UK government’s plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations into jeopardy, SNP Westminster Energy spokesperson, Mike Weir MP, said the situation underlined why Ministers must concentrate on creating a green energy future rather than the danger, cost and worry of new nuclear stations.
UK plans have been thrown into doubt as the nuclear regulatory body in Finland, where the first of the reactors is being built, has taken the extraordinary step of threatening to halt its construction because it is not satisfied that essential safety systems will work. The revelations come in a leaked letter from the Finish government’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) and the chief executive of French nuclear company Aviva.
Mr Weir said:
“The Finnish safety concerns, and the regulators threat to pull the plug on construction, has the most serious knock on implications for the UK government’s nuclear plans.
Radiation Authority Sees Safety Problems at Nuclear Site | News | YLE Uutiset | yle.fi
The Finnish Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority STUK says that the construction of the commercial nuclear reactor in Olkiluoto, which is to be the world’s largest, has not proceeded according to official requirements.
STUK has demanded that the builder of the installation, the French company Areva, correct faults with the automation that guides the reactor.
YLE current affairs programme Ajankohtainen Kakkonen acquired a letter from STUK to Areva warning that the building site could be shut down if the automation is not fixed and approved.
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