Finland’s oldest nuclear reactor—FiR1—has been decommissioned after 50 years of operating in Espoo.
Commissioned in 1962, the FiR1 research reactor was used for versatile research purposes and also served the healthcare sector. The reactor, with a thermal power of 250kW, did not produce electricity or heat for utilisation.
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The reactor was shut down in 2015, which initiated the licensing process for decommissioning and the planning for dismantling. In 2020, a significant milestone was reached when the spent fuel was transferred to the United States for further utilisation. A total of 103 spent nuclear fuel rods, weighing approximately 300kg, were removed from the reactor.
In 2021, VTT received the decommissioning licence for FiR1 from the Finnish government. Fortum, the main contractor, began dismantling in June 2023 and concluded the work in April 2024. Fortum’s works on the project will continue with the final disposal of waste in the Loviisa power plant’s final repository for low and intermediate-level waste.
Despite the reactor’s small size, the FiR1 decommissioning project will domestically serve as a model for decommissioning commercial nuclear reactors and created new expertise for the benefit of VTT’s and Fortum’s international customers.
Alongside the FiR1 project, VTT, in collaboration with several Finnish partners, also executed the dECOmm development project funded by Business Finland. This project used the decommissioning project as a test platform for various applicable technologies and has successfully achieved its initial goal of exporting technology.
“The dismantling phase was very swift, thanks to thorough planning and preparatory work. Additionally, it was crucial that we could leverage the strong nuclear safety culture and expertise from Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plant. Fortum handled everything safely, efficiently, and on schedule without significant delays,” VTT principal scientist Markus Airila said.
Dismantling amid Aalto University’s Otaniemi campus posed its safety requirements in organising the dismantling site and the arrangement of necessary waste transports.
The demolition waste, which is classified as radioactive, is being delivered for final disposal at Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plant’s low- and intermediate-level waste repository.
A total of approximately 60 cubic meters of this waste, mainly concrete, was generated for delivery to the Loviisa repository. A six-meter-high water tank and a two-meter-thick concrete shell surrounded the reactor.
“For us at Fortum, this successful project is a testament to our extensive expertise, covering the entire lifecycle of a nuclear facility. We have executed a nuclear facility decommissioning project with the same quality and competence with which we have operated nuclear facilities and delivered projects for external customers over decades,” Fortum project director Antti Ketolainen said.
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“We gained a lot of lessons and experience from the FiR1 project, which we can use to develop our operations and support our service business customers, for example, in preparing decommissioning plans and cost estimates.”
The total cost of decommissioning amounted to approximately Є24 million (AUD$38.7 million), pre-funded by the Finnish Nuclear Waste Management Fund.
