My book comprehensively covers the early history of radioactive waste management across the five leading nuclear nations but some less dramatic moments are excluded from the narrative. The lead was taken, naturally enough, by the United States, but the issue was clear enough in the United Kingdom from the early days. About a year after that nation’s nuclear program was launched, in April 1947, one of the committees of the laboratory then being built, Harwell, minuted the following one-liner:
Some discussion about the disposal of fission products followed, and it was stressed that this problem should receive its due emphasis in any report on atomic power development.
Power Steering Committee. 1947. PSC Meeting 11, Apr. 21, 1947 minutes. AB 12/57. National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom.
This committee issued a tentative report about nuclear power plants a month later. Regarding the “safe disposal of fission products,” the report offered this:
The problem of their safe disposal will be a formidable one.
Power Steering Committee. 1947. Interim report of the Power Steering Committee to the Harwell Power Committee. AB 12/1108. National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom.
Of course, no one needs to be reminded that nearly eight decades later, that problem remains one to be solved by the British.
