He broke ranks with fellow scientists at the weekend, having supposedly been sacked last year from the government-appointed committee on radioactive waste management (CorRWM). In the week that marked the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, this committee is reporting on how existing radioactive waste could be safely disposed of underground. Mr Baverstock claims they have done "a Mickey Mouse job" How are we to know?The new report plays into the Government's imminent decision about its future nuclear energy policy. One of the greatest arguments against building more nuclear power stations is that we will be leaving a hideous and unpredictable legacy for coming generations, extending hundreds of thousands of years into the future.

Always, its usual to add, supposing civilisation lasts that long. That is no silly qualification when brains as eminent as Lord Rees, the current President of the Royal Society, and James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory, have both expressed doubts about the capacity of our civilisation to survive at all.The option of surface storage is considered no longer wise, given the risks of international terrorism. There are almost certainly wild and messianic groups who would see the acquisition of any kind of nuclear material as giving them the power they lack now. So the considered option is to bury radioactive waste deep within the earth, the sort of place where Gandalf and his like consort.

If Britain goes for more nuclear power stations, the spent uranium fuel rods would triple radioactivity in the UK's current waste cupboard. So the digging will have to be deep and long.On our small island, it's going to be an interesting debate as to where exactly we could dig. The Geological Society of London, and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining have expert members eager and willing to help with suggestions. Back in the 1990s, scientists planned an underground laboratory somewhere near Sellafield, but uproar at a local inquiry put a halt to it. The geology has to be correct before such momentous steps are taken. Places such as Wales, the Lake District, central Scotland and the east coast of England have been mentioned.To the local people in such places, this will be far more offensive than my junk mail is to me. Whatever scientific evidence is offered that radioactive dungeons are safe beyond error, they will still see it as contamination.