241,000 cubic metres of intermediate-level and 1,340 of high-level nuclear waste need disposal according to Nirex. The government adviser has published its latest inventory of current radioactive waste totals in the UK, and its forecast of waste totals to be created from the operation and decommissioning of existing nuclear facilities.

And if Tony Blair gets his way and restarts the UK’s nuclear industry there’ll be ever more of this stuff. I’m not as panicky as some about this, but we’re supposed to be cutting down on the pollutants we bequeath our children not increasing the volume of it.

John Dalton, Nirex corporate communications manager, said: “We have been generating this stuff for 50 years or so – surely we have responsibility to deal with the waste we have got now.

“We don’t want to just be passing it on to future generations.”

Technorati tag: Nuclear Power, Radioactive waste