Summer work in Posiva

‍Aleksi Isoaho

Aleksi, who is 23 years old, got a summer job in the Site Description and Safety Case Unit of Posiva's R & D, and works with biosphere research. A summer job in Olkiluoto and moving to Rauma were quite a jump to Aleksi who is an Oulu guy born and bred. He studies geography at Oulu University with the fifth year of studies starting this autumn. He commutes to Olkiluoto by bus – unless a longer lie-in in the morning means he must drive himself to work.

- For me, final disposal was something I had mainly read about in textbooks which always said that a solution is yet to be developed. Those textbooks were obviously rather outdated. Previously I have worked as a sales assistant in my spare time and during holidays, but that is now in the past. I saw the advertisement about this job at Posiva and it seemed to be suitable for me. I phoned my current supervisor and asked for more information about the job. Of course, I also tried to give a lasting impression of myself. I submitted an application and early on in the year I received a telephone call and was offered this summer job position.

Aleksi's work point is in the Project Office of the ONKALO® construction site. He is a member of a work team that apart from a few Posiva employees includes external consultants.

- The biosphere team has a youthful character and consists of wonderful individuals. I have mostly worked in assisting with the interpretation of results related to the migration of radionuclides by concretely placing them on the map to provide the team with also something else to look at than just different graphs and numerical data.

Coronavirus has had significant impact on Aleksi's summer job experience

- A large part of the personnel do telework much of the time, which has perhaps made it more difficult to learn to know the work community than under normal circumstances. It has not affected my work as such, as I work exclusively at the computer; in my opinion, everything has gone quite smoothly with my work. Due to the situation being what it is, there are really no shared activities outside of work, and spending my free time by myself has been somewhat boring at times.

According to Aleksi, he has made great progress in his work and has had many wonderful experiences of success. The best part has been challenging himself.

- My knowledge and skills related to geospatial data, programming and processing data in Excel have really developed hugely. I have also been a little surprised by my own ability to adapt to new work duties, as university studies have not provided any in-depth skills needed in my current job. I have written several scripts for the automation of manual data processing phases. The first scripts that I wrote made me feel that I really can do this stuff! To some extent, I need to come up with completely new solutions and methods to allow the different results to be presented on the map. Sometimes I am faced with quite difficult problems, but the reward of being able to resolve them is also really great.

Foremost in Aleksis experience of the summer job is the impressive nature in Olkiluoto and the visit to ONKALO. Seeing the tunnel in reality enhanced his understanding of the various things related to the project. Aleksi finishes his summer job at the end of August, which leaves him with many pleasant memories. At present, Aleksi does not have a clear picture of what his future work will be, but geospatial research is of particular interest to him.

- It is difficult to say what I will be when I grow up, as I only have experience from one field. I could well be an "allrounder" in geospatial research, like in this summer job. I would not mind it at all if I were offered a job here in the future!

Miro Gorski

Miro Gorski, who is a last-year student of energy and environmental technology at Turku University of Applied Sciences, got a summer job at Posiva already for a second time. He has previously had summer jobs at TVO, in mechanical maintenance at the OL1 and OL2 plant units. Miro's summer job in Olkiluoto lasts about three months, from June until the end of August.

- I was aware of Posiva on some level as I had learned about the company in my earlier summer jobs at TVO. I have also read some especially memorable stories related to final disposal activities in the news and printed media. This summer job at Posiva is a perfect fit with the themes of my studies in energy and the environment. I am also entertaining ideas about a thesis, and would love to write it for Posiva. My hope is that the thesis topic would touch on measurements.

As a resident in Rauma, Olkiluoto has always been quite close to Miro

- I visited Olkiluoto for the very first time already as a comprehensive school pupil, and from those visits I remember the Visitor Centre and the operating waste repository, or VLJ cave. Our study programme at the University of Applied Sciences included an excursion to Olkiluoto. As an extra point of fun, I actually got the phone call about getting the summer job during the excursion to the island.

Miro works in Posiva's field research organisation with a desk in the Project Office, but measurements are performed on the ONKALO construction site as well as at measurement points located all over the Olkiluoto island and in boreholes.

- The work is carried out in pairs. Our field team consists of six persons, with two extra trainees during the summer. We work together with e.g., Posiva's geologists and other Posiva personnel. Our job is to measure various water values, such as pH and conductivity. In other words, we monitor the groundwater continuously. The values we measure provide reference data on the baseline situation prior to the start of final disposal. The samples collected by us go to TVO's laboratory for analysis.

In Miro's opinion, the best part of the job has been the possibility to do practical work. He has enjoyed the tasks related to equipment development, in particular.

- Certain measurement points are checked every day for new values. That means we drive quite a lot round the Olkiluoto island, as there are several measurement points, a total of 58 boreholes. Work is also carried out in ONKALO, including leakage measurements, sampling, data collection, and so on. Me and my partner have also had the opportunity to engage in some small-scale equipment development in ONKALO's demonstration holes. The most memorable moment was when I saw for the first time an elk at close range on my morning round on the island. Last year we saw more animals; for example, we spotted a family of foxes right next to a borehole.

A special summer with a pandemic component

-A concrete example of the effect of the coronavirus in my job is that instead of taking the samples to TVO's laboratory ourselves, we leave them to a point to be picked up. Offices are empty and everything is quiet there. However, communication with co-workers has been easy by email and telephone. The best thing about Posiva are the nice people!

Miro does not yet have a clear picture of what his dream job will be in the future. His ongoing studies in energy and environmental subjects point to a certain direction, however.

- I enjoy fresh air and outdoor exercise, I would not want to spend all of my time sitting at a computer in my future work. My dream is a job that involves travel and it would be nice to have the opportunity to travel, as part of my work, to different parts of the world to see how things are done there. I made a quick visit to Australia prior to the start of my studies and it opened my eyes to all the things that are good here in Finland. That's why it is especially great to have a summer job at Posiva, the leading world pioneer in final disposal.