Designing for 100,000 years: the world's deep repositories, from Onkalo to Korea's Gyeongju

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:30:00 +0900

The Great Pyramid of Giza has stood for about 4,600 years, which makes it one of the oldest large structures humans have built. A handful of countries are now building facilities that must stay safe for more than 100,000 years: deep geological repositories for high-level radioactive waste, mostly spent nuclear fuel. Engineering a guarantee longer than recorded history is hard enough.

Onkalo on EnergyNote

Designing for 100,000 years: the world's deep repositories, from Onkalo to Korea's Gyeongju