Nuclear power and radioactive waste

Publication date: November 2001

Summary
Radioactive substances are produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining, to the operation of reactors, to the reprocessing of spent fuel. These include plutonium, caesium, ruthenium, iodine, krypton and strontium. Most will remain hazardous for thousands, and in some cases millions, of years. Despite decades of discussion, the nuclear industry has failed to come up with a safe way of dealing with them. So, as they are released into the environment, building up in the food chain and human bodies, they leave a poisonous legacy to future generations.

Reprocessing is recognised by the government as the largest source of radioactive pollution in the UK i . The plant at Sellafield discharges millions of litres of radioactive water into the Irish Sea. It also discharges radioactive gases into the air. And this pollution is detected as far away as the waters of Norway and Greenland.