BBC Inside Science How to bury radioactive waste
Feb 19, 2026
Professor Clare Corkhill, a mineralogy and radioactive waste management expert at the University of Bristol, explains how radioactive waste forms and why it can remain hazardous for thousands to millions of years. She walks through the case for deep geological burial and natural analogues that show rock can contain waste. The show also explores Finland’s Onkalo repository and imaginative ways to warn far-future humans.
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Timescales Drive Disposal Design
- Disposal strategy must cover the longest lived isotopes, so planners aim for isolation times of 10,000 to 1,000,000 years.
- Designing management for million-year timescales far exceeds any human-built structure's known longevity.
Why Deep Geological Disposal Prevails
- Geological disposal became the international consensus because deep rock isolates waste and is predictable over geological time.
- Sending waste to space or the deep ocean poses unacceptable dispersal and risk, so returning fuel to rock is preferred.
Onkalo Visit: First Operational Repository
- Victoria Gill visited Onkalo in Finland, the world's first deep geological disposal facility nearing operation.
- She describes descending 400 metres into tunnels cut in ancient granite to see deposition areas and test canisters.