BRITAIN should abandon its de facto moratorium on nuclear power and build two
reactors to “burn” its growing stockpile of surplus plutonium, says the nuclear
industry. Such a move would buck the trend among most Western nations of turning
away from nuclear power, and would be bitterly opposed by environmentalists.
About a quarter of the world’s non-military plutonium—65
tonnes—is stored at Sellafield in Cumbria by the state-owned company
British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). The stockpile comes from spent fuel from Britain’s
reactors, and is expected to increase to 115 tonnes by 2015. According to Bill
Wilkinson, president of…
