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SECTION MENU
- Nuclear Waste Explained |
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These pellets of enriched uranium
will be sealed inside metal fuel
rods to generate electricity
in a nuclear reactor. After three
or four years in a reactor, the
pellets will become inefficient
for producing electricity and
the fuel rods will be removed
from the reactor. After removal,
the fuel rods (now called spent
nuclear fuel) will be highly
radioactive, requiring safe long-term
disposal.
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Spent nuclear
fuel and high-level
radioactive waste present a
challenge society must address. The
Department of Energy bases its
plans for a proposed repository
at the Yucca Mountain site on several
key facts about the radioactive materials
that would go into it. Among these
facts are the following:
Key Fact: The wastes DOE
plans to put in the proposed Yucca
Mountain repository are solid (not
liquid).
The nuclear waste destined for disposal
at a repository will be in the form
of solid metals, ceramics, and glass
with small amounts of radioactive
gases.
Key Fact: Spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste cannot
cause an explosion.
Spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste are not explosive.
Even if these materials were involved
in an explosion (like a transportation
accident involving an oil tanker),
they cannot cause a nuclear chain
reaction.
Key Fact: Spent nuclear fuel and
high-level radioactive waste are
not flammable.
Since these materials are composed
of metals, ceramics, and glass, they
cannot fuel a fire.
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