Germany's search for a nuclear waste site

Finland has become the first country with a final storage facility for nuclear waste. Germany is still searching for a site, while some countries have yet to start. Costs are expected to total many billions of euros. Hardly any environmental and political challenge is as complex as the disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants .

In almost all of the world's nuclear-powered nations — some 31 countries currently operate or once operated nuclear power plants — the issue remains largely unresolved. This is despite the first large-scale nuclear power plant going online 72 years ago in the Soviet Union. Finland recently became the first country in the world to approve a repository for radioactive nuclear waste. Located 400 meters (1,300 feet) underground on an island in western Finland, it is situated at the site of one of the country's two nuclear power plants.

The project took around 40 years to complete. Yet in every other country, including Germany, the problem remains unresolved.