Britain's plans for nuclear waste on hold

LONDON, Apr 11, 2011 -- UPI

A plutonium waste reserve in the United Kingdom awaits reprocessing and sale, but in the wake of the Japanese nuclear disaster nobody wants it, officials say.

The British government's plan to eliminate the country's growing plutonium stockpile centered on a technology intended to meet the demands of the Japanese market, but there are now fears that Japan is about to back out of the enterprise, The Independent reported Monday.

It was hoped that Japanese contracts for mixed oxide nuclear fuel, made from the plutonium waste, would allow Britain to deal with its growing plutonium stockpile.

Government ministers say "recycling" plutonium waste into nuclear fuel that could be "burned" in nuclear reactors represents the safest and least expensive option in dealing with the stockpile.

However, Japanese power companies have told British authorities concerns about Fukushima have forced them to indefinitely postpone the arrangement.

British experts say just sitting and doing nothing with the stockpile is not an option since the current methods of storage will eventually become unsafe in coming decades.

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