Nuclear Waste; posted for Stacey Burke

Stacey Burke
November 26th 2007

Nuclear energy is a great source of energy and electricity. However, the problem is trying to dispose of the waste after it has been used. Spent fuel rods are stored above ground in swimming pool type places under cooled water. They are kept there for several years or even decades waiting until the level of radioactivity has decreased and the rods have been substantially cooled. After this occurs, the rods can be put into giant concrete containers but, if the rods are reprocessed to remove the plutonium, the remaining highly radioactive waste becomes resolidified. One possibility is to mix it with other radioactive waste until it turns into glass then burry it far underground in metal containers. Another possible solution is to convert it to plutonium dioxide and mix it with uranium oxide to make mixed oxide fuel and then use it in existing nuclear plants. An idea is to bury radioactive waste deep underground in metal containers that will last for hundreds of years before leaking and when they do, the radioactivity will not be very high at all. Some governments do not like the idea of permanent burial because they want to be able to dig it up to retrieve the plutonium if they ever need it for nuclear power.

Fuel rods- start as uranium based rods and are made into plutonium based rods then used subsequently in power reactors.

I have always heard a little bit about the nuclear waste situation but I really didn’t understand that it was a serious ongoing project. There is really no ay for anyone to get rid of or dispose of nuclear waste. If you put it in the ground in may contaminate the water supply or the biosphere. If it is above ground not being controlled, it even more dangerous contaminating the air. There is no solution, or at least any long time solutions for the disposal. I have never heard of anyone using the idea of mixing a little bit of radioactive waste with more of it to make it into glass in order to burry it deep in the ground in metal containers. I have also never heard of fuel rods or the fact that they are stored in a pool like area for years or even decades in order to reduce radioactivity and to cool them. This is a very interesting topic and truly an aspect of life to look at in hopes someone will find a way to dispose of the waste without harming society in the end.

Baird, Colin. Chemistry in Your Life. W.H. Freeman and Company: New York, 2006;
pg. 638-640