Abstract According to a current concept, copper canisters of thickness 0.05 m will be safe for nuclear waste containment for 100,000 years. We show that more than 1 m copper thickness might be required for 100,000 years durability based on water exposures of copper for 20 h, 7 weeks, 15 years, and 333 years. An observed evolution of hydrogen which involves heterogeneous catalysis of molecular hydrogen, first principles simulations, thermodynamic considerations and corrosion product characterization provide further evidence that water corrodes copper resulting in the formation of a copper hydroxide. These findings cast additional doubt on copper for nuclear waste containment and other important applications.
http://www.sr.se/Diverse/AppData/Isidor/files/3345/7050.pdf
Still, one might add that this, even if true, is a storm in a water glass from a safety point of view, as the waste actually doesn't need to be kept contained for 100.000 years (that number was taken completely out of a hat, as they felt it would be impossible to have a debate on different risks over differens time spans with the public), when it reaches the radioactivity of natural uranium. After a few hundred years it's not dangerous to be close to, and it would only kill you if managed to ingest it into your body. Which, all things considered, is just as unlikely now as ever.
Even so, it's still bad PR, and nuclear power is very much about PR. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.