Article · Energy · Money and markets · Lithuania
Finland gets the world's first licence to bury spent nuclear fuel for good. In Lithuania, 308 casks of Ignalina fuel wait for a site, with the site investigation due to finish by 2047
On 22 October 2026 the Finnish government granted Posiva a licence to operate its spent fuel encapsulation plant and the Onkalo final repository on Olkiluoto island. According to NucNet it is the first licence of its kind anywhere: up to 6,500 tonnes of uranium, about 3,300 canisters, roughly 430 metres down. Disposal cannot start until the safety regulator STUK has inspected the last commissioning tests, and Posiva gives no date. Under Finnish law the waste producers pay, not the state budget. In Lithuania, according to the regulator VATESI, the fuel from the closed Ignalina plant sits in 308 casks in two interim stores; the investigation to choose a deep repository site is due to finish by 2047 and operation is planned for 2068. We found no public cost estimate.
On 22 October 2026 Finland became the first country in the world licensed to bury spent nuclear fuel permanently. No other country holds such a licence yet. One example of the wait: Lithuania's Ignalina fuel sits in 308 casks, and according to VATESI the investigation to choose the site for its grave is due to finish only by 2047; 77 candidates remain in 29 municipalities.