Abstract In January 1981, the United States Council on Environmental Quality [U.S.C.E.Q.] released a report on “Global Energy Futures and the Carbon Dioxide Problem”. Perhaps more than any other document this report has impressed upon the scientific community the necessity to initiate a detailed and systematic study of a whole range of environmental problems created by the increasing combustion of fossil fuels. It has also helped to bring into perspective the relative risks associated with the utilisation of a number of base load fuel cycles, including, in particular, the nuclear fuel cycle.