ty. While this level of radioactivity is far less than the radioactivity in the inventory of spent fuel rods from commercial reactors, the liquid radioactive waste is more dispersible and, thus, both more volatile and dangerous (Wicks & Bickford, 1989, pp. 50-58).
Spent fuel rods are generated by 110 nuclear power reactors at nearly 70 commercial nuclear stations in 33 states. The existing spent-fuel inventory comes to roughly 27,000 metric tons, which by 2010 is expected to rise to nearly 59,000 tons. Nearly all of the spent fuel is kept at the reactor sites in pools used for cooling and storage. Many of these pools are nearing their capacity, forcing the utilities to look to storage of their older, cooler fuel in dry vaults or casks at the nuclear station (Kramer & Barber, 1995, p. 16).
A nuclear power plant produces two kinds of radioactive waste: spent fuel and low-level waste. Spent fuel is "hot" in both senses of the word. It is highly radioac
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