BURNING tens of thousands of tonnes of waste graphite from the UK’s nuclear power stations sounds like the last thing you should do, but that is exactly what is being considered by the UK government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). If the plan is carried out, any radioactive carbon released into the atmosphere could endanger people’s health.
Nearly all of the UK’s nuclear reactors have graphite around their cores to slow down escaping neutrons and help sustain the nuclear reaction. Until now, it was assumed that the contaminated graphite would be stored or buried along with other radioactive waste.
But…
