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Nuclear waste can be divided into two types, high level, and low level.
Low level nuclear waste is materials that have been exposed to nuclear materials, such as tritiated water, pieces of contaminated clothing, contaminated tools, materials that have been in the nuclear reactor or with the high level waste, earth that has had contaminated water soak into it, and so on. Some of these are stored at the plant, and others are shipped off to low level waste storage facilities. They are separated according to need. Some may need to be stored for a period of decades or centuries while the materials in them decays, and others may need to be stored for centuries.
High level waste needs to cool off before anything can be done with it, so when it is removed from a reactor, it is put into a spent fuel pool where it is cooled with water while the short term isotopes in it decay to the point that they do not give off too much heat. This takes several years. At that point, the waste may be moved to what is called dry cask storage, where it is held until someone decides what to do with it on a more permanent basis.
Some countries allow waste to be reprocessed and some do not. The United States does not, and since no one has figured out how to store waste over a long term, the waste accumulates at the plants that produced it. This is not a good solution because the plants are nearly all sitting on the shore or on river or lake banks, where they are exposed to some degree.
The French have been very aggressive with reprocessing nuclear waste, and do it for a number of other countries. This is fine, except that the reprocessing has its own set of possibilities of disaster, the very reason the United States does not allow reprocessing.
There are technologies being developed, such as energy amplifiers or accelerator driven systems, that may be able to use the nuclear waste as an energy source, reducing it to radiologically inert material in the process. We do not know if this will work.
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What waste problems of nuclear power plants is NOT a problem with a coal burning power plant?
fear of the waste.
A place where nuclear power is produced?
A nuclear power plant or nuclear power station.This consists of:a nuclear fission reactoran electric generation facilityone or more cooling towers to dispose of waste heat in the form of water vapora spent fuel rod storage pool of water (to keep the rods cool as their fission products decay)a manned control roometc.
What are some of the negative impacts o f a nuclear power plant?
Radioactive waste, nuclear accident, public disapproval's
Why are nuclear power stations bad?
Strictly speaking, nuclear power stations aren't really that bad, since every method of getting energy has pros and cons. The disadvantages of nuclear power stations are that they create some waste products. These things are radioactive and waste with high radiation output (over 90% of waste does not emit more radiation than a cup of coffee) will cause long term damage to anyone staying near it for awhile. Around 90% of the available energy in the fuel rods when they are removed from the reactor after three fuel cycles (the typical period). If the highly radioactive fission fragments were extracted and the fissionable material reprocessed into new fuel (as they have been doing in France for decades), the remaining volume of radioactive material would be significantly reduced. Another disadvantage is that nuclear power stations may melt down, irradiating the land around them. There is actually a low chance of a meltdown, but when it does happen, an entire region can be contaminated and poisoned.
Is there a substitute for uranium for nuclear reactors?
Only plutonium! Is that any better?Actually all the transuranics can make suitable fuel for nuclear reactors, especially Americium. The Integral Fast Breeder(IFB) reactor was designed to reprocess Uranium and all the transuranics produced into fuel rods onsite, leaving only the short lived fission products as waste, which would only require storage for a couple centuries (not hundreds of thousands of years as current waste with the transuranics still in it does). Some of these fission products have industrial and/or medical uses and would be worth separating from the waste.
What are the causes of nuclear and toxic waste?
nuclear waste is a by product of nuclear power plants, or in the creation of nuclear weapons.
What waste problems of nuclear power plants is NOT a problem with a coal burning power plant?
fear of the waste.
What energy waste is pruduced by nuclear power plants?
Heat.
Where are nuclear waste from nuclear power plants currently stored?
In the US they're stored on site.
Which nuclear process occurs within nuclear power plants and produces radioactive waste materials?
Nuclear Fission
Nuclear waste has come from nuclear power plants?
Most of it does, but some comes from weapons manufacture as well
What has been done with nuclear waste?
The honest answer is the USA has been producing a great deal of nuclear waste and ignoring the problem of what to do with it. President Obama wants more nuclear power plants, but, has not said what to do with nuclear waste. A lot of waste is stored in nuclear power plants, but, they are getting filled up fast, and that is not really a good idea. The possibility of an accident or theft is very real.
What are the risk of generating electricity by using nuclear power plants?
The waste is the issue.
What has the author Carl E Behrens written?
Carl E. Behrens has written: 'International agreement to cut off production of nuclear weapons material' -- subject(s): Nuclear nonproliferation 'Nuclear waste management' -- subject(s): Radioactive waste disposal 'Nuclear waste management' -- subject(s): Radioactive waste disposal, Government policy, Radioactive wastes, Management, Hazardous wastes 'Nuclear nonproliferation policy' -- subject(s): Nuclear nonproliferation 'Nuclear power' -- subject(s): Accidents, Nuclear power plants, Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.) 'Enriched uranium supplies for nuclear power plants' -- subject(s): Uranium enrichment, Nuclear power plants 'The Convention on nuclear safety' -- subject(s): Convention on Nuclear Safety, Design and construction, Nuclear power plants, Safety measures
What waste products come from power stations?
Radioactive waste is a waste product containing radioactive material. It is usually the product of a nuclear process such as nuclear fission, though industries not directly connected to the nuclear power industry may also produce radioactive waste.
Nuclear power plants can produce energy more cheaply and with less pollution them plants that use fossil fuels why are there not more nuclear power plants dad plants that burn fossil fuels?
The problem of disposing large amounts of nuclear waste is not resolved.
Is the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants dangerous?
It contains a higher amount of radioactivity
