Title: Nuclear Waste
Course: Critical Infrastructure: An Overview > Section: Course Content

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Nuclear Waste

Nuclear waste, also called radioactive waste, is made of different items including:

- Items that were once used as fuel in a reactor (spent fuel)
- Items used in a nuclear plant that are radioactive
- Items used in nuclear medicine that are radioactive

It is basically radioactive materials that are not going to be used any longer and therefore need to be safely contained and stored somewhere.

The spent fuel that we consider to be nuclear waste, could possibly hold value in the future if methods of recycling it are ever made feasible. Recycling would require work on and production of advanced fast reactors, a type of reactor that is capable of utilizing uranium that is still left in spent fuel [13].

Types

Three Types of Nuclear Waste:

1)      Low Level Waste – This consist of things typically found in medical settings.

2)      Transuranic Waste – This waste would include the boots, gloves, hats, and other gear that are used to keep workers safe.

3)      High Level Waste – This level of waste is be made up of spent fuel from nuclear power plants [14].

Storage

Although construction began on a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, political disagreements and local protest halted progress on that facility. The closing of the Yucca Mountain facility began on October 1, 2010.

A waste storage depot in Carlsbad New Mexico has been in existence since 1999. It is called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP.  WIPP utilizes salt caverns for containment. Salt is nonporous and naturally encapsulates the barrels of waste. WIPP contains mostly transuranic waste from the United States government’s weapons program. WIPP is trying to get approval to house more types of waste.

The bulk of all nuclear waste in the United States is contained at the same nuclear power plant that created the waste. The March 11, 2011 incident in Fukushima Japan raises concerns that flooding or earthquake could make this storage unstable.