Nuclear power is a hot topic at the moment. In a world where electricity is integral to our everyday lives, the issues around producing it are more talked about than ever. I was a strong supporter of nuclear fission; I believed it was the right way to bridge the gap between the phasing out of fossil fuels and the growth of renewable energy. I was also a big supporter of ITER, the EU group looking to develop nuclear fusion, which produces much less concerning by-products which are safe after 100 years. I had thought about and discussed at length the risks of nuclear meltdowns and theft of materials for malicious purposes, but I had never given much thought to the waste.
Proposed nuclear waste storage facility in Finland
The documentary talked through the plans for a nuclear waste deposit facility in Finland, and discussed some of the other solutions that are currently in place. The overriding point was that these solutions are not fool proof, and when dealing with the radioactive matter, they MUST be fool proof. Truthfully, when I now think about what I thought was/should be done with nuclear waste, I imagine a big hole in the ground that the waste is dumped in and then covered over. I now see how naive this was.
The nuclear waste produced by nuclear fission needs to be held for 100,000 years before it is no longer a risk to life. I couldn’t appreciate how long that was until the film illustrated it with a timeline of human life. It made apparent the changes that the earth and humanity have experienced in the last 2000 years, 1/50 of the time the waste must be held for, and it enforced the unnerving point that we cannot know what the earth will be like 2000 years from now, let alone 100,000.
Many solutions were discussed, such as using markers to show this is a dangerous place, leaving detailed documents, or even ‘forgetting’ about it and hoping it remains untouched. Each of these was rebutted with a long list of concerning facts and theories.
The film certainly hammered in the point of how worried we should be about this issue, and I left with a feeling of sadness and discomfort. I think it would be fair to say that it was a tad dramatic, however, I think that is because they wanted the points made throughout to stick with the viewer, which was achieved.
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