Guest: Gareth Law, Heini Reijonen, Sophie Haapalehto

Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Pascal Becker

In this episode we cover the final storage of nuclear waste in underground facilities. We start out with a conversation about the basic process and the chemistry and physics of nuclear waste with Gareth Law, a professor of radiochemistry at the university of Helsinki. We then discuss geological issues with Heini Reijonen of the Geological Survey of Finland. Our third conversation is about the Onkalo storage facility in Finland with Sophie Haapalehto, who works for Posiva, the operator of the site.

Here are a few additional links you might want to check out:

• Design and Performance of Engineered Barrier Systems for the Finnish Deep Geological Repository (Presentation, PDF)


• A Novel Adaptation Mechanism Underpinning Algal Colonization of a Nuclear Fuel Storage Pond (Paper, PDF)


• Discharges and Environmental Monitoring Annual Report 2019 (Sellafield) (HTML)


• Monitoring beaches near Sellafield for radioactive material (Report, HTML)


• Estimation of Global Inventories of Radioactive Waste and Other Radioactive Materials (Report, PDF)