Popular Summer Wednesdays are here again
How do you know it is the peak season at the Olkiluoto Visitor Centre? The answer, of course, is that people again arrive in their hundreds to the Visitor Centre for the Summer Wednesdays which have become a tradition. They will start on the week after the mid-summer, like before, and continue all the way until mid-August.
The doors of the Olkiluoto Visitor Centre are open every day also during the summer, but the Wednesdays offer something extra as well.
On the Summer Wednesdays, the visitors get to hear to hottest and most recent Olkiluoto news and will leave the island with a slightly better understanding of the wonders of nuclear power. This is guaranteed by the presentation given by a guide every Wednesday. The presentation is about one hour long.
There are still a lot of aspects of nuclear energy that are not clear to many people. Indeed, the majority of people rely on information provided by the media, or in the worst case, on the “truths” they find in online discussions. These can easily be far from realism. So, the Summer Wednesdays bring light also to this darkness of ignorance.
Of course, you can search for information also in books or online, but based on feedback, the live experience is the preferred method for many. And the cherry on the cake is the chance to board a bus for a tour in the immediate vicinity of the Olkiluoto plants. The tour takes the visitors to the cool environment of one of the lower tunnels in Olkiluoto, the operating waste repository, as well.
Of course, you can search for information also in books or online, but based on feedback, the live experience is the preferred method for many.
The deeper Onkalo® facility of Posiva is out of bounds, unfortunately, due to the hectic finishing works currently underway there to make it ready for the full-scale testing that will start after the summer. It is very much looking like the world’s first final disposal operation of spent nuclear fuel will really start in Olkiluoto.
As a keepsake, you get to take a comprehensive information package home with you. The Summer Wednesdays naturally also include some refreshments and a chance to tour the interesting exhibition on display in the Visitor Centre. The doors are not closed until eight in the evening and will be opened again at ten the next morning.
Welcome!
The test was written by Mika Tanhuanpää who is the Head of Visits at Teollisuuden Voima. His full-time career in Olkiluoto goes back 24 years. Mika specialises in difficult questions which he thinks are the highlight of his work.
Pictures: Tapani Karjanlahti and Jessi-Julia Salonen
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