00:01With the push of a button, an elevator drops deep underground.
00:05More than 400 meters below the surface,
00:08Finland is preparing to store its most dangerous nuclear waste.
00:11Finnish firm Posova's Onkalo site, on the country's west coast,
00:16is expected to begin operations, the first of its kind in the world.
00:21The solution that we have is the missing point
00:24for sustainable use of nuclear energy.
00:27A lot of people have said that nuclear is fine, but then you have this waste.
00:31But we do have a solution.
00:33The tunnels cut through 1.9-billion-year-old bedrock,
00:37chosen for its stability and low earthquake risk.
00:40Spent nuclear fuel will be sealed in copper canisters,
00:44buried, then packed with clay and rock.
00:47Operators say storing the waste deep underground
00:49is safer than leaving it on the Earth's surface.
00:52It's the isolation from the civilization and mankind on the surface
00:58is important because of the radiation caused by the waste.
01:04It comes as countries rethink nuclear power,
01:07driven by energy security concerns after Russia's war in Ukraine
01:10and other geopolitical crises.
01:12I think it's a kind of new renaissance for nuclear energy at the moment in the world.
01:17That's because of the world energy crisis, Ukrainian war, many other things.
01:21So many countries are now planning how to be more self-sufficient
01:25and have their own electricity or energy and not to be dependent on others.
01:32Taiwan is also moving in that direction,
01:34with plans to restart some nuclear reactors to meet rising energy demand.
01:39But the issue of nuclear waste remains unresolved here.
01:42On Taiwan's outlying island of Lan Yu,
01:45decades-old storage of nuclear waste has long been controversial among local indigenous communities.
01:51The site was meant to be temporary, but thousands of waste barrels remain.
01:57Activists warn that Finland's approach still carries uncertainty,
02:01with radioactive material remaining dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.
02:06While the risks may not be immediate,
02:08activists still question whether any system can truly protect future generations.
02:13John Su and Lily Lamatino for Taiwan Plus.
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