Disposal of Radioactive Waste

According to the U.S. government, there are four categories of radioactive waste: uranium mill tailings, which are what is left over after uranium is extracted from raw uranium; high-level waste, which is intensely radioactive; transuranic waste, which is generated during nuclear weapon production; and low-level waste, which is all the radioactive waste not included in the other three categories (Saleska 19-20).

Uranium mill tailings have a low level of radioactivity when compared to other types of radioactive waste, but they also have a radioactive life of typically more than 100,000 years, longer than most other types of waste. while the radioactivity associated with mill tailings is but a small fraction of the total radioactivity of waste products, they account for more than 96 percent of the total volume of all radioactive w

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htly radioactive spill (type A), to highly radioactive cooling water filters from a power plant (type "greater than C." Much of the so-called low level waste is only slightly radioactive; however, some of it is highly radioactive and may have a very long half-life. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a waste repository designed to hold transuranic waste. WIPP is a large chamber carved into salt deposits near Carlsbad, New Mexico and it was begun in 1983 with the first deposits set to arrive in 1988. Before the site could be opened, however, a panel from the National Academy of Sciences warned that the salt water in the cavern might corrode waste containers and permit radioactive materials to leak into the water table. The DOE suggested that WIPP accept only small amounts of waste while tests determine the true level of danger. Since the DOE has been unable to determine how the tests to determine the danger level are to be performed, or how much waste can safely be accepted, the WIPP has yet to accept any radioactive waste (Horgan 24D). After much negotiating and searching, the government selected Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the site for high-level commercial waste in 1987. This would eliminate the long-term storage
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Approximate Word count = 1501
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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