As nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants have proliferated over the last ten years, the need to safely dispose of the nuclear waste associated with them has grown, as well. In addition to these two sources of radioactive waste, there are other, less dramatic sources. Complicating the issue of radioactive waste is the not-in-my-backyard-syndrome: while most individuals agree that something has to be done about radioactive waste, few individuals are willing to have a radioactive waste site in the immediate area. This research examines the various types of radioactive waste and the progress toward establishing long-term waste sites for them.
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 wastes in the nation (Saleska 19).
Transuranic waste, associated with nuclear weapon production, is contaminated with significant amounts of elements whose atomic numbers are greater than that of uranium. Plutonium is such an element. Transuranic elements are characterized by a high level of instability and long half-lives. There are special disposal problems associated with these waste products because of their characteristics. Typical examples of the t...