A meditation on the 100,000 year legacy of nuclear waste – TUC Archives
As people using and promoting solar power we often jokingly said that we prefer our nuclear reactor in the sun at a safe 93 million mile distance. As humans have mastered one power of the universe and split the atom, the discovery has outstripped human ability to understand the consequences. We have copied the nuclear heating mechanism of the sun in 440 nuclear power plants along coastlines and rivers of the world and are barely aware of the danger they cause way beyond their place and time of use.
The physician and anti nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott says that vast amounts of highly toxic radioactive waste are generated every day in Nuclear Power Plants. The 440 nuclear power reactors in the world are operating in 32 countries plus Taiwan. And about 55 power reactors are currently being constructed in 15 countries.
None of the world’s reactors have so-called “permanent” safe underground storage for the highly radioactive waste they are producing. And only one country in the world, Finland, is attempting to build one, called Onkalo, the hiding place.
In spite of all the risks nuclear power is still supported. NBC News announced in April 2022 that Biden launched $6B effort to save distressed nuclear plants. Owners or operators of nuclear power reactors, that are expected to shut down for economic reasons, can apply for funding to avoid closing prematurely.
And there are more countries showing interest lately in expanding unclear power. That’s due in part to the recent European Union’s decision to designate nuclear power as a “green” fuel. The “green” fuel designation suddenly propelled a small island off the coast of Finland into prominence. The Olkiluoto nuclear island contains three reactors and the world’s first permanent storage site for high-level radioactive waste, called Onkalo.
Michael Madsen, a Danish artist and documentary filmmaker, had come to Onkalo in 2009 before it became a tourist destination. He spoke to Helen Caldicott about his film “Into Eternity” shorty after the US premiere.
This is a re-broadcast of Helen’s interview from her weekly radio program, If You Love This Planet, first broadcast in June 2011.
DATE: 2011-07-11
LOCATION: Australia and Denmark
CREDIT: Helen Caldicott
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 39.8MB)
