Science & technology | Nuclear waste

The first underground warren for disposing of spent nuclear fuel

Finland leads the way. Sweden and others may follow

ONKALO - FISST tulppa-2
|Olkiluoto

Nearly half a kilometre underground, in the Precambrian bedrock of Olkiluoto, an island off the south-western coast of Finland, a rough-hewn gallery a few metres wide and similarly high runs dead-straight through the granite. Underfoot, the floor is a bit muddy, though mostly rocky. Overhead, steel meshing stops any fragments that might have been loosened by the drilling falling onto people’s heads. Neither hard-hat-mounted torches nor the headlights of an electric van can reach far enough into the stygian darkness to pick out the gallery’s end, some 350 metres away in the distance.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Oubliette”

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