LONDON - Nuclear power's credentials as a carbon-free energy source have helped to calm fears about its safety, but scientists have yet to solve the problem of the hundreds of thousands of years of toxic waste it generates.
Most countries' nuclear waste is stored in steel and concrete containers kept in indoor cold water ponds over ground or ventilated shafts.
Ideally, scientists say, it should be placed in deep, underground repositories.
That technology is not yet proven. But the government, which earlier this month backed a new generation of nuclear power plants, said it believed deep geological waste reserves would be viable and some scientists agree.
"I think there's sufficient evidence that internationally all the technology is there and the safety analysis has been done many times over," said Neil Chapman of the School of Underground Waste Management, based in Switzerland.
"The problem is that those people who have been opposed to nuclear have persistently said there isn't a solution to waste disposal because there are no purpose-built underground facilities in the world to deal with this," he added.
So far, some 270,000 tonnes of spent fuel are in storage in cold water facilities around the world and 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes are added each year, according to the International Energy Agency, energy adviser to industrialised nations.
France, which produces almost 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, in June 2006 decided to pursue deep geological disposal and aims to have its first deep underground repository open by 2025 at a cost of 15 billion euros (11.1 billion pounds), according to the World Nuclear Association.
DEEP PROBLEMS
While deep underground facilities are best suited to keeping nuclear waste away from the population, it is not problem-free.
To try to overcome the obvious difficulty of local opposition, the government has asked communities to volunteer to host a deep underground repository.
The bulk of nuclear waste is stored at Sellafield and some analysts regard it as the only potential volunteer because it is already home to so much waste.
The public consultation on waste and decommissioning will take place between February and March 2008 and will be followed by an application for volunteers.
