"Nations around the world are abandoning nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, however the UK is considering plans to launch a new generation of reactors by GE Hitachi that recycle nuclear waste into energy-generating fuel. According to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), these new reactors have the capability to consume Britain’s massive radioactive waste stockpile while generating enough low-carbon electricity to power the country for more than 500 years," as reported by Diane Pham for Inhabitat.

"Britain has been evaluating various options on how to handle its stockpile of nuclear waste, which includes more than 100 tons of plutonium and 35,000 tons of depleted uranium. The plutonium in particular presents an especially high security risk that would cost the country billions of pounds to dispose of. Thus far, to remedy the problem, the DECC has only proposed building a plant to combine the plutonium with other materials to create a less volatile mixed-oxide fuel. However, the resulting fuel allows only a tiny proportion of the energy in the waste to be converted into electricity."