![]() Keeping the used fuel in temporary storage to allow both the heat and radioactivity to diminish makes the recycling and disposal easier.Ĭooling and storing used nuclear fuel assemblies in pools (Image: SKB) ![]() The fuel can be kept in wet storage, or transferred into a dry facility after a period of initial cooling. When used fuel is taken out of a reactor, it is both hot and radioactive and requires storage in water to allow the fuel to cool. Used nuclear fuel is kept in either wet or dry storage facilities, before being recycled or disposed of. If you want to read more about radiation and its health impacts, you can read more about it on our Radiation and Health pages. Radiation is an unavoidable part of life on our planet, and life evolved and is thriving in this radioactive environment, and the doses from a nuclear waste repository would be almost 50 times smaller than the average background radiation. After all, the environment we live in, as well as the human body, is naturally radioactive. The amount of radioactive materials that would enter the environment would make no difference to the natural environment or future humans. Whilst remaining weakly radioactive for a few hundred thousand years, the radioactivity from the main component of the waste which could cause health problems will have decayed to safe levels within a few hundred years.Ī key factor in understanding why nuclear waste repositories do not pose a health threat also stems from the fact that the quantity of materials which would be found in the environment in the event of a leak would be very small. The popular misconception is that because certain parts of nuclear waste remain radioactive for billions of years, then the threat must be sustained for that period. Since the dawn of the civil nuclear power industry, nuclear waste has never caused harm to people. Used nuclear fuel being prepared for recycling (Image: Rosatom) Perceived health risks In comparison, a 1,000-megawatt coal-fired power station produces approximately 300,000 tonnes of ash and more than 6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, every year. The generation of electricity from a typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear power station, which would supply the needs of more than a million people, produces only three cubic metres of vitrified high-level waste per year, if the used fuel is recycled. Only 5 grams of this is high-level waste – about the same weight as a sheet of paper. On average, the waste from a reactor supplying a person’s electricity needs for a year would be about the size of a brick. As a result, a correspondingly small amount of waste is produced. Nuclear fuel is very energy dense, so very little of it is required to produce immense amounts of electricity – especially when compared to other energy sources. Many permanent disposal facilities are in operation for low- and intermediate-level waste, and facilities for high-level waste and used nuclear fuel are under implementation and facilities under construction. Unlike any other energy generating industry, the nuclear sector takes full responsibility for all of its waste. By contrast, high-level waste – mostly comprising used nuclear (sometimes referred to as spent) fuel that has been designated as waste from the nuclear reactions – accounts for just 3% of the total volume of waste, but contains 95% of the total radioactivity. The vast majority of the waste (90% of total volume) is composed of only lightly-contaminated items, such as tools and work clothing, and contains only 1% of the total radioactivity. There are three types of nuclear waste, classified according to their radioactivity: low-, intermediate-, and high-level. Like all industries and energy-producing technologies, the use of nuclear energy results in some waste products. Near the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden the CLAB (foreground) facility stores all the used fuel from Sweden’s nuclear power plants, which for decades have provided over 40% of the country's electricity (Image: SKB) There are several management strategies in practise, such as direct disposal or reuse in reactors to generate more low-carbon electricity. The electricity generated from nuclear reactors results in small amount of waste and has been managed responsibly since the dawn of civil nuclear power. What is nuclear waste, and what do we do with it?
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