Marcia Degia - PublisherEvery day, throughout the world, large amounts of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants is placed in interim storages,
which are vulnerable to natural disasters, man-made disasters, and to
societal changes; constant surveillance, security management and
maintenance is required. In Finland the world’s first permanent nuclear repository – Onkalo – is being hewn out of solid rock – a huge system of underground tunnels that must last at least 100,000 years.
Onkalo is a Finnish word for hiding place. It is situated at
Olkiluoto in Finland, approximately 300 km northwest of Helsinki and it
is the world’s first attempt at a permanent repository. Work on
the concept behind the facility commenced in 1970s and the repository is
expected to be backfilled and decommissioned in the 2100s – more than a
century from now. No person working on the facility today will live to
see it completed.
Once the waste has been deposited and the repository is full, the facility is to be sealed off and never opened again.
But how to ensure that? And how is it possible to warn future
generations of the deadly waste left behind? How to prevent them from
thinking they have found hidden treasure, burial grounds? Which
languages and signs will they understand? And if they understand, will
they respect the instructions? While gigantic monster machines dig
deeper and deeper into the dark, experts above ground strive to find
solutions to this crucially important radioactive waste issue to secure
mankind and all species on planet Earth now and in the near and very
distant future.
Captivating, wondrous and extremely frightening, a feature
documentary takes viewers on a journey never seen before into the
underworld and into the future.
