Radioactive wastes come in many different forms. For example, one form of radioactive waste is contained in the protective suits on nuclear plant employees. The creation of huge quantities of long-lived radioactive waste is the most formidible problem facing the nuclear power plant industry today. There are several levels of radioactive waste. When plants were first being promoted it was assumed that waste could be reprocessed or buried somehow so waste didn't seem as such a problem back then, but, unfortunately, finding safe ways of storing radioactive wastes so that they do not leak radiation into the environment has proved more difficult than anticipated.

Radiation affects the water, air, soil, animals, humans, and plants. It would take 3,000,000 years for radioactive waste stored in the United States to decay to background levels and the United States alone produces 3,000 tons of high-level waste. The amount of spent fuel removed annually from 100 reactors would fill a football field to a depth of 1ft. When spent fuel is removed from a reactor core, it still emits millions of rems of radiation. Nuclear power plants produce more thermal pollution than fossil-fuel plants, but less air pollution when they operate properly.

In December 1982, the United States passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to deal with the problem of wastes that had accumulated for almost 40 years and that continue to accumulate. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act calls for permanent storage in deep underground mines or repositories. After the waste is stored, it must be carefully guarded to prevent it from being dug up for unauthorized uses. In 1996 the U.S. Senate agreed to establish a temporary nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nuclear interests complain that the facility is necessary because their plants have run out of storage space, but environmentalists argue that moving radioactive waste across states is dangerous.

So far burying the nuclear wastes is one of the very few things the government can think of. This highly dangerous material is very unsafe and has affected all humankind. It has also affected the rest of our world as well. It is the most worried about problem of nuclear energy in the United States.

The most important and difficult problem is the disposal of plutonium. There are three major plans being considered to solve this problem. On etemporary solution is the burial in sealed canisters in underground vaults, but this does not solve the problem. These canisters leak releasing nuclear waste into our water, soil, and air. Another disposal method for plutonium is a process called "vitrification" or "glassification." This is a method to package high-level waste by melting it with glass and pouring the molten material into impermeable containers. The newest plan would be to convert plutonium into MOX (mixed-oxide) fuel which would help generate power at nuclear power plants. An interesting fact is that locally the Savannah River Site is trying to become the site of both the MOX and vitrification missions.




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