Dealing with Radioactive Waste Disposal of Radioactive Waste

Radioactive waste is the residue from the production of nuclear weapons, nuclear power, radioisotopes, and other products which make use of that type of nuclear reaction (Panati and Hudson, 1981). The early waste was primarily from nuclear weapons, but the waste from nuclear power and other sources has been increasing. As a matter of fact, radioactive waste from nuclear power plants contains more radioactivity than waste from the production of nuclear weapons.

There are three important characteristics of nuclear waste which need to be considered. These are radioactivity level, volume, and longevity. According to Wheelwright (1995), the most important measure for consideration of nuclear waste disposal is the radioactivity level. Even if there is a high volume of waste with a long lifetime, he contended, this is less problematic than radioactive waste with a high level of radioactivit

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ch of these presented different storage problems. Highlevel waste, from reactors and the liquid for atomic weapons, requires longterm, secure, deep storage. On the other hand, a 1980 law says that landfills are adequate for lowlevel waste, even though that might also contain some longlived elements of highlevel waste, but at low concentrations. Finally, the transuranic waste presents different problems, since its hazards are similar to lowlevel waste, but its halflife is extremely long, with plutonium having a halflife of 24,360 years. Even more serious, ultimately, than the technical problems might be the legacy of distrust that the government has created. D'Antonio (1993) described the kinds of behavior that led to this distrust in his book about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Until recently, government carelessness and lack of consideration has exposed ordinary citizens, workers, and military personnel to unacceptably high levels of radiation in many different ways. In some instances, it seems as though the government knew little about what radiation would do and cared even less about its own population. Potential Solutions For the most part, nuclear waste has been stored in tanks, casks, or cooling ponds, wit
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Approximate Word count = 2468
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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