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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The UK, US, and Europe will be swapping nuclear waste [bbc.com] as part of a rethink of how to handle such material:

David Cameron is to announce plans for the largest ever shipment of nuclear waste from the UK to the US. In return, the US will send a different type of used uranium to Europe where it will be used to help diagnose cancer. The BBC's James Landale said the PM's aim was to show that it is possible to think differently about how to dispose of nuclear waste. But Friends of the Earth said any transatlantic transportation of nuclear waste was a risk it advised against.

Mr Cameron will travel to the US later to announce the agreement at a summit on civil nuclear security in Washington. He will tell world leaders that Britain will transport 700kg of highly enriched uranium to the US from the Dounreay storage facility in Scotland. Officials said this would be the largest ever such movement of nuclear waste, which the US has more capacity to store and process. In return, a different form of used uranium will be transported from America to the European Atomic Energy agency (Euratom) where it will be turned into radio isotopes that are used to detect and diagnose cancer.

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