A 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock will soon house the world’s first permanent nuclear waste site

OLKILUOTO, Finland (AP) — The world-first facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel is set to begin operations in Finland after decades of construction. Construction of Onkalo — which means “cave” in Finnish — began on the west coast in 2004 as the site for the final resting place for tons of dangerous radioactive waste. Costing 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), the authorities are expected to grant a license within months for operations to begin. The site of the repository — on the island of Olkiluoto, near three of Finland’s five nuclear reactors — was chosen for its stable migmatite-gneiss bedrock. But experts have safety concerns, especially for future generations.