Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity raises mind-boggling questions about nuclear energy. His somber film is a tour of grey forests, chilly blues, snow, cold – and nuclear waste. It details how the government of Finland is building Onkalo, the world’s first permanent repository for nuclear waste. Built to last 100,000 years after it is sealed in the 22nd century, its permanence doesn’t guarantee safety. This is a new kind of horror movie.
“How far into the future will your way of life have consequences?” asks one of the figures concerned with Onkalo. Will the beings of 100,000 years from now be able to stifle their curiosity and not try to open up Onkalo? Will they research the archives the government is building to learn how to be stewards of this lethal site? What kinds of markers must the private company developing Onkalo erect to keep people from opening Onkalo?
This film is strong medicine for an incurable illness.
Defined by Heikki Farm’s stately cinematography, Into Eternity unfolds slowly, and it’s talky. Some might say it raises more questions than answers, and it’s telling that the authorities involved – from nuclear safety gurus to theologians to blasters to governmental policymakers from Finland and Sweden – traffic in trust more than certainty. But the material is inherently dramatic, because there aren’t solutions.
One scientist notes that for China and India to reach the economic level of the West in the next 20 years, three nuclear reactors must be built every day, an economic incentive. But that doesn’t mitigate the safety issues. All agree that even though waste can theoretically be reprocessed, it’s hard to do so and the process is incomplete. They also say many Onkalos must be built, far from earthquakes and volcanoes.
Surface ground is unstable. War and economic depression threaten less secure kinds of vaults. Onkalo, which will hold only waste from Finland, is under construction five kilometers underground. Don’t go there, says director Madsen, who connects the movie’s sections with freighted, symbolic narrative. Not to worry.
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