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The Climate Question

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Why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and how we might change that.

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The Climate Question: What can we do with nuclear waste?

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03/10/2022 GMT

What can we do with nuclear waste?

BBC World Service - The Climate Question, What can we do with nuclear waste?

Can a giant hole in Finland solve our nuclear waste issue?

Do the problems with nuclear powers outweigh its carbon credentials?

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

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