Tackling the UK's nuclear legacy (BBC) {LONG article}

[eppur_se_muova]

Tackling the UK's nuclear legacy
By Tim Hirsch
BBC News environment correspondent

***
The labour, energy and taxpayers' money (about £45m this year) being devoted to this site are all part of the decommissioning process which will continue here for nearly another century.
***
The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM), after an exhaustive public consultation exercise, will soon publish draft recommendations on what should be done with some 470,000 cubic metres of waste - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall five times over.
***
That process is only projected to be completed by the end of this century, as it is not considered safe to start dismantling the highly radioactive core until the 2080s - although this may be brought forward due to technological advances in decommissioning techniques.
***
This recycles uranium for use in other plants, but leaves highly irradiated nitric acid which must be cooled and encased in glass, remaining radioactive for thousands of years.
***
more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4700106.stm