Britian alone has an *awful* lot of radioactive waste. An organisation called CORWM (Commitee on Radioactive Waste Mangement) is the UK government body tasked with working out what to do with it.
Dumping it in space initially sounds like a very tempting option, however there far too much of it to even consider this as a practical proposition.
The following amounts of radioactive waste are currently stored at various locations around the UK.
low level – 30,000 cubic metres
intermediate level – 350,000 cubic metres
high level – 2000 cubic metres
yes, you read that right. 350,000 cubic metres !
spent plutonium and uranium fuel is not classified as waste, but is nonetheless “stockpiled”. the following volumes are stored.
plutonium – 4,300 cubic metres
uranium – 75,000 cubic metres
spent fuel – 10,000 cubic metres
For more information, see the corwm.org web site http://www.corwm.org/content-658
(ps: The Corwm site was built using Immediacy CMS)