Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management - Fact Sheet

Radioactive waste: an international concern


What makes radioactive waste an international concern?

Many other countries in addition to the United States generate electrical power using nuclear fuel. Altogether, there are 436 nuclear power plants around the world, operating in 31 countries. All countries using nuclear power must contend with radioactive waste, regardless of the number of reactors they have in service. Nuclear energy production eventually creates waste in the form of spent nuclear fuel. Spent nuclear fuel is depleted or used fuel from nuclear power plants and research facilities.

Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive, and remains so for thousands of years. Isolating this high-level waste from people and the environment is an important and challenging issue for countries that use nuclear power. Social, economic, political, technical, and geographic considerations shape a country’s radioactive waste management decisions.


Basic types of radioactive waste

Generally speaking, radioactive waste can be either long-lived or short-lived. Long-lived radioactive waste decays at a much slower rate than short-lived waste, and therefore retains its radioactivity longer. The opposite is true for short-lived wastes. Radioactive waste can also be categorized as low-level or high-level, according to the amount of radiation given off.


Low-level radioactive waste

Approximately 90 percent of the radioactive waste produced in the world is low-level, yet contains only about five percent of all the radioactivity in low- and high-level waste combined. It can be either short- or long-lived, but most is short-lived. This type of waste consists of lightly contaminated trash and debris, such as paper, clothing, cleaning materials, metal and glass equipment, and tools used in commercial and medical nuclear industries. It also results when nuclear power plants are shut down.

Any radioactive waste that is not spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, uranium mining residues, or transuranic waste falls into the low-level waste category.

Many countries bury their low-level, short-lived waste in protected shallow trenches or concrete-lined bunkers, but some countries choose other options. In the United States, low-level radioactive waste is sent to disposal sites licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Each state, or group of states, is responsible for disposing of and managing low-level waste. Low-level radioactive waste from United States Department of Energy (DOE) facilities is buried on the Nevada Test Site.


Spent nuclear fuel

Spent nuclear fuel is fuel that has been withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation, has undergone at least one year’s decay since being used as a source of energy in a power reactor, and has not been chemically separated into its constituent elements by reprocessing. Spent fuel includes the special nuclear material, byproduct material, source material, and other radioactive materials associated with fuel assemblies.


High-level radioactive waste

High-level waste makes up the smallest volume of radioactive waste, around three percent of the world’s total, but it contains approximately 95 percent of all the radioactivity in low- and high-level waste combined. In the United States, high-level radioactive waste primarily comes from defense-related reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. All countries with high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel plan to eventually dispose of these materials deep underground, in a geologic disposal facility called a repository.


International consensus on high-level radioactive waste: deep geologic disposal

Underground disposal has been determined by the international scientific community as the best option for permanently separating high-level radioactive waste from people and the accessible environment. Scientists and researchers around the world agree that deep geologic disposal is technically feasible, provides a waste disposal solution that keeps the public safe, provides for security from intrusion, prevents the diversion of nuclear materials for harmful purposes, and protects the environment for both the short and long term.

In addition to the United States, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have invested significant resources in their radioactive waste management programs because of their historic or anticipated reliance on nuclear energy. Despite some differences in their programs, they all support deep geologic disposal as the best method for isolating highly radioactive, long-lived waste.

Of these countries, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all performed detailed studies, or characterizations, drilling numerous boreholes and exploratory shafts and ramps in underground research laboratories. The data are useful in determining the predicted safety performance of future nuclear waste repository sites.

Common elements of potential repository systems include the radioactive waste, the containers enclosing the waste, the tunnels housing the containers, and the geologic makeup, or type of rock, of the surrounding area. Some countries are individualizing their repository systems, and many are working in collaboration with other countries to develop shared technologies.