Finland’s energy company Fortum and consulting engineering company AINS Group on 23 August signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide extensive joint Finnish services for the safe management of low and intermediate level radioactive waste in China. The agreement also enhances cooperation between other Finnish companies and organisations such as the VTT Technical Research Centre and Posiva Solutions.
By 2020, the generating capacity of nuclear power plants in China is expected to be 50GWe, which means 1,200 tons of used fuel will be produced every year, and the total amount of used fuel will be about 14,000 tons.
Fortum was one of the first companies in the world to operate an underground disposal facility for The authors of the appeal remind that Finland was the first in the world to build a geological disposal site for used nuclear fuel, and since the 1990s has operated a burial site for low- and medium-level radioactive waste. Fortum is the owner and operator of the Loviisa NPP, which has disposal sites for both those radioactive waste currently generated the plant and for waste that will be generated when the station is closed and decommissioned. Fortum notes that disposal of radioactive waste in the immediate vicinity of the NPP site minimises the need for waste transportation and the risks involved.
AINS company, since the late 1970s, has been engaged in design of low and medium radioactive waste treatment centres for Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO), which opertaes the Olkiluoto NPP. This burial site has been in operation since 1992. In addition, AINS designed a large complex for the management of radioactive waste at South Korea’s Wolsong NPP, which entered service in 2015.
