How do the types and amounts of waste generated by nuclear and non-nuclear industries in the production of elctricity compare to each other?

Answer 1

The waste generated by nuclear power plants is the spent fuel. Another question deals with that issue, and it is linked. Spent fuel is highly radioactive, and remains so for thousands if not tens of thousands of years. Waste generated from non-nuclear electric power production facilities varies as widely as do the different types of power plants. In Iceland (and a few other locations), there are geothermal facilities that generate a lot of power with a minimum of pollution. Water power facilities don't pollute very much. There are a few environmental costs associated with dams, though. Natural gas fired plants produce greenhouse gases. Oil and coal fired plants do as well, and they also produce a bit of other types of pollution owing to sulfur in the fuel. The amounts of waste generated by the different plants will vary as a function of the amount of power they produce and, most particularly, the energy source for the production of the electricity. Those plants that burn some kind of fuel will be more polluting than those that do not. This information is provided as a starting point for the researcher doing a term paper or report. The forum here is not designed to write those papers for a student. Links to relevant Wikipedia articles are provided.