Editorial: Nuclear industry must not forget past lessons

IN THE nuclear industry, memories can be distressingly short. In 1976, the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution declared that it would be “morally wrong” to make a major commitment to nuclear power without demonstrating a way of safely isolating radioactive waste. Yet the UK is about to embark on a programme to build at least 10 reactors while still lacking a disposal site for the waste that has accumulated over the past 50 years. What’s more, spent fuel from these reactors will be far more radioactive than existing waste and may even require a second repository (see “Nuclear super-fuel…