Eurajoki residents back nuclear waste storage but reject foreign imports

Eurajoki residents have reacted cautiously positively to the permanent disposal of nuclear waste at Posiva’s Onkalo repository, Yle reports. The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland, STUK, said it supported the plan, a prerequisite for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the government to advance the facility’s commissioning.

If completed, the Eurajoki repository would become the world’s first disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste.

Local residents said storing the waste in the bedrock would not disturb their sleep.

“With common sense, I have understood that the risk is small. There are not really any alternatives, and I believe I will sleep reasonably well,” said Matti Sulervo, who had travelled from the neighbouring municipality of Lappi to shop in Eurajoki.

Esko Piipponen, who worked for a long time at the Olkiluoto construction site, described the disposal plan as a sensible solution.

“Of course it can be stored there. I wonder what people are really afraid of,” he said.

Marja-Leena Peltomaa also approved of disposing of nuclear waste in Eurajoki.

“It is perfectly fine. There is nothing strange about it, as long as it is safe enough,” she said.

Residents wary of foreign waste

Posiva’s Onkalo repository in Eurajoki is the only facility of its kind in the world. The possibility of also accepting nuclear waste from elsewhere has been raised, but this would require a change to the law because Finland’s Nuclear Energy Act prohibits importing foreign nuclear waste for permanent disposal.

Residents of the municipality hosting the repository were not enthusiastic about the idea.

“I do not recommend or support it,” said Eurajoki resident Tuija Vainio.

Peltomaa took the same view. In her opinion, foreign nuclear waste should not be considered for disposal at Onkalo, unless the compensation were sufficiently high.

“I do not support it. Or I do not know, perhaps if the compensation were extremely large, then maybe,” she said.