What are solutions for nuclear waste and radiation?

Answer 1

Solutions for Nuclear WasteA lot of things are currently done with nuclear "waste". First it should be understood that the majority of what people consider waste is actually "spent nuclear fuel". This is fuel that comes out of a reactor after it has been used for electricity production. What most people don't know is that although the fuel isn't fit for further use in a reactor, it contains a great deal of uranium and other isotopes with a very high energy content. The reason it is referred to as waste is because we (the U.S.) currently don't have a way to utilize this material. This is due to a ban on reprocessing in our country. Through reprocessing we can separate out the nuclear material that can still be used as fuel from that which can't. Around 95% of the spent fuel is actually uranium that can be reprocessed.

As for disposal, several methods exist to keep nuclear material away from humans and vice versa. Geologic disposal (such as the Yucca Mountain facility), transmutation (a process wherein radioactive material is changed into more stable forms), and reuse of fuel material in advanced reactor designs. I'm only aware of storage currently being used, transmutation and advanced reactors are currently under development around the globe.

A great deal of R&D and policy decisions are needed before the nuclear waste issue can be completely solved. The R&D work is being carried out at universities and laboratories around the world and hopefully the policy-makers will have come to their senses before it is too late.

One possible solution to the problem would be to re-enrich the uranium in the spent fuel and develop advanced reactor fuels to burn long-lived radioisotopes (such as transuranic elements). If these can be removed from the waste, the time frame for required observation of geologically disposed waste would be reduced to a few hundred years; a much more manageable scale than the current requirement of thousands of years. Not only would this reduce the long-term waste liability of these materials, it would also provide a new energy source from the spent fuel.

Here are more opinions and answers from other FAQ Farmers:

• There are no good solutions. Right now the government is planning on burrying our nuclear waste in a saced native American mountain where it can leach into the ground eventually. Also, this option would only get rid of some of the waste. We need to start investing in renuable energy like wind and solar energy.

• Currently nuclear waste goes into the ocean in areas not controlled by any particular country [over 12 miles from land, I can't remember the actual distance].