This could become the most radioactive place on earth
This could become the most radioactive place on earth
Over a quarter of a million tons of highly radioactive waste is just sitting around across the globe, in some cases leaching toxins into the environment. And nobody knows what to exactly to dowith it – except for Finland. We visit the the only high-level nuclear waste storage site in the world.
#Planet A #NuclearWaste #NuclearWasteStorage
Reporter: Kiyo Dörrer
Camera: Florian Kroker
Video editor: Neven Hillebrands
Supervising editors: Joanna Gottschalk, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann, Michael Trobridge
We’re destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we’ll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
Read more:
English site with information about the final repository Onkalo:
https://www.posiva.fi/en/index/finald…
Types of nuclear waste:
https://www.nrc.gov/waste.html
Studies about copper canister corrosion:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science…
Scientific debate based on previous studies:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science…
https://cris.vtt.fi/en/publications/r…
Special thanks to the interview partners whose expertise was essential for the video:
David Shoesmith, Jinshan Pan, Johan Swahn, Katy Huff, Markku Lehtonen, Matti Kojo, Päivi Mäenalanen, Wolfram König
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:50 Onkalo History
02:35 Onkalo Geology
03:38 Types of Nuclear Waste
08:50 Eurajoki: The Community
10:45 Transferability
12:32 Conclusion
Content
3.18 -> "So we've arrived at minus 437m underground."
8.4 -> We're inside the only final storage facility
11.25 -> for spent nuclear fuel in the world.
13.983 -> "There is going to be basically no danger
16.129 -> within the next hundreds of thousands of years."
19.62 -> This tunnel deep underground is supposed to be
21.905 -> the game-changer for nuclear waste.
24.72 -> There are a quarter of a million tons of nuclear waste
26.971 -> just lying around across the globe.
29.4 -> In some cases, leeching toxins into the environment.
32.88 -> And nobody really knows exactly what to do with it yet.
35.82 -> Except for the Finns.
38.059 -> So how did they do it?
39.896 -> And does this mean we've solved
41.278 -> the nuclear waste problem once and for all?
49.74 -> "When I first heard that the Finns were
51.464 -> building a nuclear waste deposit site,
53.497 -> I thought it would be
54.682 -> in the middle of nowhere,
55.61 -> maybe in the Arctic circle.
57.028 -> But no, it's actually just a three-hour
58.422 -> car ride away from Helsinki."
61.44 -> In a municipality of almost 10,000 people
64.351 -> called Eurajoki.
65.94 -> Which also happens to be home
67.889 -> to Europe's largest nuclear reactor.
70.343 -> The municipality actually bid to host the site
72.979 -> and was selected from four possible locations.
75.928 -> Construction started in 2004,
78.582 -> right next to the power plant.
81.3 -> "Sounds quite straight forward, doesn't it?
82.954 -> But it's actually really
84.29 -> remarkable that this happened."
86.388 -> Because a final disposal facility
88.6 -> for spent nuclear fuel
90.488 -> has to keep highly radioactive waste
92.744 -> from leeching into the environment
94.338 -> for a couple of hundred thousand years.
97.371 -> To put that into perspective, a couple of ice ages
100.246 -> will have come and gone in that time.
103.495 -> That needs decades of discussions, planning
106.105 -> and careful selection of sites and a feat of engineering.
110.1 -> Other countries with nuclear power plants
112.137 -> have also been looking for their
113.401 -> own permanent storage sites,
115.21 -> but nobody has even started construction anywhere else.
118.88 -> Whether you're pro or anti-nuclear energy,
121.389 -> this problem needs a solution fast.
123.785 -> Because the waste is piling up in sometimes
126.031 -> inadequate interim storage sites worldwide.
129.402 -> But not in Finland.
130.86 -> After decades of research and construction,
133.014 -> the site called "Onkalo," "cave" or "hole" in Finnish,
136.468 -> is about to start operating in the next few years.
139.86 -> The project is financed by the
141.578 -> Finnish nuclear power companies,
143.162 -> which are partly owned by the Finnish state.
153.8 -> "And we're ready to go!"
157.31 -> The trip down takes almost a quarter of an hour.
163.5 -> "So we've arrived at - 437m underground."
173.1 -> "Yeah, it definitely feels like a cave."
176.76 -> All around us is crystalline bedrock,
178.971 -> a mixture of granite and a rock called migmatite.
182.4 -> And that's the first key to why this place
184.922 -> was chosen to store the nuclear waste.
187.236 -> The age of the rock is almost two billion years.
191.736 -> It's rather unfractured.
194.796 -> Rather dry.
196.026 -> We don't have a lot of groundwater movements in here.
200.16 -> Antti Joutsen is the head geologist
202.524 -> at the company responsible for the facility.
204.52 -> The host rock needs to be unworthy
207.778 -> in the sense that not economical things
210.813 -> that future generations would like to dig out from the rock.
215.611 -> But finding the right rock is just the first step.
219.84 -> Because nuclear waste is unlike any other waste.
222.9 -> There are three main types:
224.591 -> low-level, intermediate, and high-level waste.
227.945 -> Low-level waste is usually stuff
230.223 -> that came into contact with radioactive material.
232.689 -> Like protective equipment, filters, or medical waste.
236.499 -> Intermediate waste is equipment used in nuclear plants
239.45 -> or weapons production like pipes or insulating material.
243.265 -> This can stay radioactive for a couple of hundred years.
246.659 -> They are decontaminated and disposed of
249.036 -> in low-level waste sites under or overground.
252.715 -> Up to 99% of all nuclear waste falls into that category.
258 -> The one percent of high-level radioactive waste
260.764 -> is the most problematic one.
262.86 -> That consists mostly of spent nuclear fuel rods.
266.111 -> But it also includes waste from nuclear weapons production.
269.288 -> Spent rods still contain lots of energy.
272.036 -> Enough to emit heat and remain radioactive
274.25 -> for up to a million years.
276.052 -> And that waste is sitting in cooling pools
277.977 -> or in dry casks around the world.
280.369 -> A total of over a quarter of a million metric tons,
283.227 -> says the International Atomic Energy Agency.
286.078 -> That's as heavy as 26 Eiffel towers.
290.465 -> And some of it is leaking radioactive material.
294.48 -> Our best solution for handling it safely
296.883 -> is burying it deep underground and
298.934 -> leaving it to decay for a couple of hundred thousand years
301.721 -> until it isn't dangerous anymore.
305.1 -> To prevent radioactivity from the rods
307.155 -> from leaking in the meantime,
308.633 -> it needs to be encased properly.
311.175 -> In Finland, the spent fuel rods are sealed into 5-centimeter-thick
315.306 -> and around 5-meter-high copper canisters.
318.406 -> They are then transported underground with a hoist.
322.08 -> Holes are drilled into the bedrock along very long tunnels.
325.86 -> The canisters are then put into the holes,
328.489 -> as in this demo drilling.
330.78 -> "Wow, that's so deep. You can hear my echo there."
336.18 -> Then the hole is filled up with bentonite clay,
338.961 -> which is also used as cat litter,
341.044 -> and can absorb groundwater that might
342.891 -> seep in and corrode the copper canister.
346.26 -> And, finally, the tunnel is backfilled with the
348.78 -> same material and sealed with a 6-meter thick concrete slab.
352.32 -> As you can see here in this demonstration tunnel.
360.9 -> "This is our first real final deposition tunnel.
366.186 -> It's 350 meters long.
370.56 -> We can fit around 40 capsules in this tunnel."
374.725 -> Those capsules or canisters are the most controversial part
378.473 -> of the whole nuclear waste repository.
381.66 -> "So it's quite wet here,
383.967 -> and groundwater can be dangerous for the canisters,
387.865 -> isn't this a problem?"
389.653 -> "After all, even though we have minor leakages into the tunnel,
394.487 -> the amount of inflow into the tunnel is very, very small,
399.96 -> so still good for final disposal."
404.531 -> The problem is what happens if the bentonite layer
407.397 -> has defects or is damaged and groundwater
409.955 -> containing sulfide and hydrogen does reach the canister.
413.708 -> Researchers have shown in multiple studies
415.89 -> that copper could corrode and the canisters
417.925 -> could fail much faster than the company in charge
420.71 -> has calculated - possibly already in a time span of decades.
425.34 -> Research on this is ongoing and the topic is
427.938 -> highly debated in the scientific community.
431.1 -> But the stance of the Finnish nuclear safety authority
434.063 -> and Posiva is that the uncertainty
436.527 -> isn't so high that it would pose a significant risk.
439.947 -> And they stress that the canister is
442.05 -> just one protective layer of many.
446.7 -> "If we have an escape of radionuclides
449.806 -> from the disposal canister,
453.588 -> then we have the bentonite clay around it.
455.44 -> If then some still manage to move on,
459.353 -> then we have the 420 meters of rock on top of us.
464.532 -> So the radionuclides would need to crawl through
468.753 -> some fracture network upwards 420 meters
472.969 -> without getting absorbed to the fracture surfaces.
477.32 -> It can still work if some of our assumptions
482.94 -> might be wrong eventually."
486.82 -> Onkalo is meant to house all the future waste of Finland's existing nuclear power plants.
491.726 -> The storage site will be
492.932 -> gradually expanded for about a century,
495.201 -> until it stretches over 50 km.
498.6 -> But then it will be sealed permanently,
500.926 -> and not touched again.
502.818 -> The site will no longer be monitored
504.73 -> The overground buildings are to be dismantled.
508.38 -> If any additional reactors are built,
510.584 -> it is unclear what would happen to their waste.
513.371 -> Nor is it clear how future generations
515.707 -> will be able to tell that radioactive waste
518.015 -> is located here or if it should be kept unmarked.
521.308 -> But that's a question for another video.
523.864 -> But even so, Finland is way ahead of most nations.
527.309 -> Maybe because of their unique mentality.
529.852 -> "One role in there might be with
532.756 -> the pragmatic mindset of Finnish people.
536.068 -> There has been a mutual consensus
541.347 -> that we need to take care of the waste.
544.56 -> Not to leave them to the future generations.
547.77 -> There has been very little opposition from the society."
552.912 -> Back above ground, that was confirmed.
556.02 -> "No I'm not afraid that anything bad will happen
559.916 -> because they are very careful about safety.
563.36 -> Everyone here likes nuclear power mostly.
565.668 -> We've had [a] good run with our plants.
568.577 -> I think it's good.
569.88 -> We get more taxes and money from that.
574.214 -> And maybe some new people.
576.885 -> And for [the] business side, it's good.
580.208 -> We have very much money.
586.171 -> Eurajoki gets around 20 million euros
589.197 -> in property taxes every year from TVO,
591.984 -> the company who owns the nuclear power plants
593.998 -> and the waste disposal site.
595.883 -> Eurajoki's center only has a few thousand inhabitants,
598.958 -> but its own healthcare center, nursing home,
601.152 -> library and a host of sports facilities.
604.18 -> And it is building another sports center
605.818 -> for 9 million euros.
608.028 -> Vesa Jalonen has been living here
609.967 -> for over 50 years and is
611.553 -> the municipal government chairman.
613.296 -> "People in Finland they think so that because
616.98 -> engineers have investigated that
622.609 -> for example our regulator STUK,
624.593 -> we trust it very, very much."
629.103 -> In Finland, power companies are very [transparent].
634.337 -> Always tell us what happens there.
636.429 -> We have cooperation groups with TVO and Posiva
640.84 -> and I think they are very important.
643.16 -> Actually, we can say that we are very proud of that.
646.8 -> And that's quite unique.
648.39 -> In many other countries,
649.637 -> local opposition is one of the biggest hurdles
652.226 -> to choosing a final storage site.
654.814 -> In the U.S., Yucca Mountain in the deserts of Nevada
657.587 -> was abandoned as a proposed site
659.56 -> after the State strongly opposed the idea.
662.52 -> Germans protested transports of nuclear waste
665.097 -> to the planned site in Gorleben for decades
667.155 -> until the location was deemed unfit.
669.783 -> And the small village of Bure, in France,
671.823 -> has become the center of the anti-nuclear movement
674.585 -> since it was proposed as a site for radioactive waste.
678.126 -> But that does not mean it's impossible
679.856 -> to find somewhere that people agree on.
682.405 -> Sweden will most likely be the next country to start construction.
686.269 -> They were also the ones to originally develop
688.366 -> the technology used in Onkalo.
690.827 -> The Swedish government recently approved
692.585 -> a site in Forsmark, an area
694.715 -> also home to a nuclear power plant, like Eurajoki.
698.82 -> Switzerland suggested a location
700.736 -> very close to the German border.
702.957 -> Protests were largely only heard from the German side.
707.603 -> The technology behind the final storage facility
710.011 -> is more easily transferable.
712.308 -> What's happening in Sweden
713.473 -> is the best example of that.
716.308 -> Canada also has similar rock,
718.474 -> and has collaborated with
719.66 -> the Swedes and the Finns.
721.161 -> Meaning, it could also use similar technology.
724.62 -> But geological conditions aren't the same elsewhere.
728.36 -> France is planning on storing their waste in clay,
730.98 -> which requires different types of barriers and canisters.
735.06 -> Germany is considering putting it in old salt mines.
738.175 -> Again, a different ball game.
740.76 -> And the US is still open to all disposal types
743.509 -> after they had to start from square one.
746.28 -> So, just copying what has been done
747.991 -> in Finland isn't possible everywhere.
751.8 -> But selecting sites that already have ties
754.084 -> to nuclear energy does seem to work.
756.72 -> Communicating with the locals
758.124 -> and involving them is another key point.
760.991 -> Financial incentives also don't hurt.
763.62 -> And being willing to learn on the job
765.337 -> and being pragmatic about the waste also helps.
769.2 -> "The Finns seem pretty confident
771.082 -> they have found a good solution
772.358 -> for their own nuclear waste.
773.922 -> And I must admit,
775.08 -> it seems like the best option out there,
777.144 -> even if there a few open questions left."
780.023 -> Although you could argue that they should
781.776 -> conduct more research before locking in
783.809 -> a technology that has to last for up to a million years.
788.405 -> "Other countries that lack the
789.892 -> unique Finnish combination of pragmatism,
792.356 -> politics and geology,
794.183 -> are going to find it a lot harder to follow suit though.
799.44 -> Thanks for watching.
800.343 -> Please subscribe.
801.232 -> We post videos like this every Friday."
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFEd5RkotFE