[economist.com reports] ONE OF the biggest problems with nuclear power is the unresolved question of how to handle radioactive waste. Britain has been splitting atoms for half a century, but its officials have never agreed on a policy for disposing of the 470,000 cubic metres of intermediate and high-level waste that have built up. With the country’s civil reactors undergoing decommissioning, and ministers dropping hints that this summer’s energy review will recommend building new ones, the problem has become urgent. In 2003 the government set up the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CORWM) to advise it. In its draft report on April 26th, it recommended burying the waste deep underground, as well as building dedicated storage facilities on the surface while the underground repository is being built. more