PHOENIX — A Finland nuclear regulatory company official kicked off the 52nd Waste Management Symposia here Monday saying Finland’s reliance on “high-level expertise” is a reason a deep underground repository for spent fuel is expected to open there.
Construction of the project in southwestern Finland began more than two decades ago. And the facility should start emplacing underground waste within a year, the Finnish officials said at the kickoff to the conference.
Finland is the featured country in this year’s Waste Management Symposia and a member of the European Union. Waste Management is attended by about 2,800 people this year.
“When the situation looks impossible we are at our best,” said Linda Kumpula from the Finland Ministry of Economic Affairs, Finland’s primary nuclear regulator. The country has been working on a solution to spent fuel disposal for 40 years, said both Kumpula and Ilkka Poikolainen, the CEO of Posiva. Posiva is the Finnish company developing the waste repository.
While Finland is poised to achieve what the United States and several other countries have struggled with for decades, it helps that Finland gets 40% of its electricity from nuclear power, Poikolainen said, adding “Solving problems has always been a part of who we are at Posiva.”
Finland is consistently ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, the CEO said, adding that seeing the project become reality is helping him become perhaps the happiest man in the world.