By SUE LANDAU - Published: June 2, 2011 BURE, FRANCE - Reached by narrow roads that meander through picturesque villages, a high-tech laboratory sits in a corner of France so remote that until construction started on it a decade ago, the local inn was not connected to the electricity grid.
Beneath a plateau surrounded by fields of colza and wheat, the underground laboratory, located near the village of Bure, in the eastern French region of Lorraine, is run by the Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Déchets Radioactifs, or Andra, the national authority charged with the safe disposal of nuclear waste.
The laboratory's work is to test what might happen if spent nuclear fuel were to be stored permanently in caverns cut deep into rock. France plans to do just that; others are seeking to follow suit.
As the global nuclear power industry strives to limit the immediate fallout - both physical and political - from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power station in Japan, Europe is poised to enshrine a final solution for its long-term radioactive wastes, the industry's most persistent public-relations problem.
A directive being debated in Brussels would commit the Continent to following the example of France, Finland and Sweden, which are preparing to dig deep underground labyrinths to store the highly toxic waste forever.
Now that solves the problem - does it !The next generation humans will thank us for coming up with this non-solution !
Ak Malten, Pro Peaceful Energy Use
Europeans Pursue Labyrinths of Nuclear Waste
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