h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi.
I remember Sellafield before it became a reprocessing plant, when the graphite blocks forming the core of the reactor at Calder Hall overheated and due to a failure of design, no filter system, spread radio active contamminants throughout the North West. This would be very minor compared to the scene you suggest.

Unfortunately nuclear waste is a fact of life, it is too late to worry about alternative sources of energy, they wont solve the immediate problem. The new process at Sellafield is better than nothing, we at least owe it to future generations to try to solve this apalling mess. Even if we stopped All nuclear power plants today there would still be a huge backlog of waste to be dealt with. Yes let us strive to seek cleaner and better sources of power, but dont go down the road of thinking that would be the end of the problem.

A last thought, not mine ,it has been muted that the waste will in future, with new technologies available, be a source of valuable chemicals and radio active isotopes. A pipe dream I suspect, but not impossible

Good Luck with the studies PeterK.