Environmental Impacts – Loviisa power plant

The environmental work of the Loviisa power plant is guided by the environmental standard ISO 14001. The system covers all operations by the Loviisa power plant and its contractors who work at the island of Hästholmen. The electricity production of the Loviisa nuclear power plant avoids about 6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere in Finland each year compared to producing a similar amount with fossil fuels.

Waste management at Loviisa

Waste management at the Loviisa power plant is comprised of two separate areas: waste management for the non-controlled area and waste management for the controlled area. All waste generated in the controlled area is treated as radioactive. Waste generated outside the controlled area can be treated as waste from a conventional industrial plant.

Key-figures-Loviisa-2019-waste-management

 

The majority of the waste generated at the Loviisa power plant is conventional waste

Loviisa nuclear power plant generates approximately 1,188 t of waste each year. However, most, or more precisely 95%, of the waste generated by the nuclear power plant is conventional, ie non-radioactive waste. Up to 74% of this waste is recovered, as material or energy.

Only 10% of waste ends up in landfills and 9%, such as chemicals and solvents, goes to further treatment as a hazardous waste due to its properties.

Only a fraction of the waste generated by the power plant is nuclear waste

2% of the waste generated by the Loviisa nuclear power plant consists of spent fuel, which has an interim storage at the power plant premises. The final disposal of this waste is to Posiva, at Eurajoki. The remaining 3% of the waste generated by the nuclear power plant consists of maintenance waste 1% and liquid waste 2%, and they will be disposed on the power plant site in the final repository. Therefore in total, only 5% of the waste generated by the power plant is so-called nuclear waste.

The final disposal of spent nuclear fuel in Finland is handled with care

Read more about the final disposal of nuclear waste
See the report here
Nuclear power

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