Finnish construction company YIT and nuclear waste management company Posiva Oy have signed an agreement on another mining contract for Posiva's underground used nuclear fuel final disposal facility, YIT announced on 28 August. The contract, which is valued at approximately €17 million ($18.6m) and will be booked in the third quarter order backlog, will begin in late 2019 and is expected to last approximately two and a half years. The contract covers the excavation of two central tunnels in the second phase of the repository and five related repository tunnels in Olkiluoto, Eurajoki. The work will start towards the end of 2019 and is expected to take about two-and-a-half years.
YIT has already completed two excavation contracts for Posiva. “During our previous contracts, our cooperation with Posiva was very smooth and we are very pleased to be able to continue this cooperation through such a challenging new contract,” said Aleksi Laine, SVP for rock and special engineering at YIT.
The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk) gave the go ahead for construction of the repository in 2016. The site was selected in 2000 and parliament approved the decision-in-principle on the repository project the following year. Posiva, jointly owned by Finnish nuclear utilities Fortum and Teollisuuden Voima Oyj, submitted its construction licence application to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy in December 2013.
Posiva announced in June that it was beginning construction of a €500m encapsulation plant and final disposal facility for used fuel at Olkiluoto – the first country to begin construction of a final repository. Posiva is responsible for final disposal of used fuel generated by Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) at its Olkiluoto NPP and Fortum at its Loviisa NPP. Posiva is owned 60% by TVO and 40% by Fortum.
