The government's failure to provide a long-term strategy for the disposal of nuclear waste is increasing the risk of an accident or terrorist attack, independent scientists have warned.

Professor Chapman of the University of Sheffield, said: "We have hopped about from one policy to another until we have got to the point where we haven't got a policy at all."

A government committee, which is due to report to ministers some time next year, has been given the task of looking at options, including firing nuclear waste into space, transmuting it into some other substance and introducing it under the Earth's tectonic plates.