What can we do with nuclear waste?

The race to reduce emissions has more and more nations reaching
for the nuclear option. Nuclear power plants are being built
around the world, generating carbon-free electricity day and
night, windy or calm. But they also generate radioactive waste,
some of which can remain deadly for thousands of years. Thousands
of tonnes of nuclear waste currently sit in “temporary” sites,
some decades old. This has been fuel to critics who have
described nuclear power as a scourge for future generations. No
country yet has a permanent solution to the problem.


Now, almost 70 years after the first nuclear plant, Finland is
set to change that. Engineers have been creating a giant cavern
they say will become the world’s first permanent nuclear waste
disposal site. Can it silence the critics or are we just passing
on the problem to future generations?


Presenters Graihagh Jackson and Neal Razzell spoke to: Professor
Michael Bluck, director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at
Imperial College, London. Dr Leslie Dewan Nuclear Engineer, CEO
and co-founder of Radiant Nano Nuclear Security Company. Shaun
Burnie Nuclear specialist with Greenpeace East Asia


Reporter: Ilpo Salonen, Finland Producer: Lizzy McNeill, Jordan
Dunbar Researcher: Natasha Fernandes Series Producer: Alex Lewis
Production Co-ordinators: Helena Warwick-Cross, Siobhan Reed
Sound engineer: Tom Brignall