Posiva's Annual Report 2023 published
In 2023, the installation and commissioning phase continued for the construction of Posiva’s encapsulation plant and underground production equipment. Construction work and work related to building services engineering proceeded well on schedule. The commissioning of the personnel lift running from the lifting equipment building to the underground premises was a significant accomplishment. Work related to the installation of the canister lift made progress as well.
The final system installations in the encapsulation plant are reaching completion. Work in 2023 included, for example, the installation of the machining station next to the canister welding station. The AGV platform designed for operation with remote control under difficult conditions was tested at a depth of 430 metres underground, and Posiva carried out the drilling of the first deposition holes for final disposal. Due to delays in the delivery of some systems, the Trial Run for Final Disposal (simulation of final disposal with unirradiated copies of fuel elements) scheduled to be carried out in late 2023 will now start in 2024.
The preparations for the production stage also progressed according to plans. The third phase in the recruitment of operators was launched at the end of the year. Preparations for building up the supply chains of canister and bentonite components for production operation also moved forward. Efforts were continued to find more supplier options for the canister components.
The application for the operating licence of the encapsulation plant and the final disposal repository was filed with the Finnish Government in December 2021. Except for some minor delays, the review process of the application has made quite good progress. The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland (STUK) announced in September 2023 that the safety assessment and STUK’s statement on the operating licence application for the final disposal facility of spent nuclear fuel will be issued in 2024. In December, the EU Commission approved the general data provided by Posiva, as referred to in Article 37, for the start of the final disposal operation.
The European Commission decided in 2022 to include nuclear power in the EU taxonomy. The taxonomy system will make it possible in the future to classify economic activities in the EU based on whether they are environmentally sustainable investments. Posiva's final disposal solution as well as the approach adopted in Finland to nuclear waste management played an important role in this decision.
As defined in the vision included in the strategy of Posiva Solutions Oy, the objective of the Company is to be the global market leader as the provider of expertise and technology for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Posiva Solutions recorded a positive financial result for the year 2023. Investments were directed to organisational growth and the foreign sales of the Company increased despite the decline in the total turnover, as expected, due to a contract coming to a close in 2022.
For Posiva, the year 2024 will be significant as it prepares for the start of the Trial Run for Final Disposal and the onset of the production stage in mid-2020s.
Posiva's Annual Report for 2023 was published on 25 April 2024 on the Company’s website at https://www.posiva.fi/en/index/media/reports.html