Radioactive Waste and Environmental Pollution

The reason as to why we should not support radioactive waste is because it pollutes the environment and reduces tourism Varies from low level waste to high level waste.Also known as nuclear waste.It is divided into three categories; high, low, `and intermediate level waste.Low level waste is usually generated from hospitals, from the radioactive therapy, and also from the nuclear fuel cycle. It does not require shielding when being handled. High level waste is generated from burning uranium fuel in a nuclear reactor. It requires cooling and shielding.The most significant high level waste from a nuclear reactor is the used nuclear fuel left after it has spent about three years in the reactor generating heat for electricity.

Low level waste is disposed of in landfill sites while higher level waste, which may be dangerously radioactive is more difficult to be dispose of.Can be reprocessed to extract processed to extract nuclear fuel or encased in glass and left deep underground. Intermediate-level waste contains high amount of radioactivity than low-level and less than high-level. This type of waste typically requires shielding during handling and interim storage. This type of waste typically includes refurbishment waste, ion-exchange resins, chemical sludges and metal fuel cladding. The intermediate level waste contains 4% of all the radioactivity. Intermediate-level waste that requires long term management are transferred to an authorized waste management operator. Stored by pending in a geological repository(long lived)

Nuclear waste was once stored in Yucca mountain since the mid-1980s.The project has languished primarily due to opposition from the Nevadans who don’t want to import such dangerous materials into their backyard.Nuclear waste is stored at more than 100 sites around the country today. Nuclear waste weakens and breaks up DNA, either damaging cells enough to kill them or causing them to mutate in ways that may eventually lead to cancer. Stored by making it into glass or synroc. Both glass and synroc prevent the radioactive waste from mixing with water and being carried into the environment. Synroc is also resistant to high temperatures.They are stored so as to avoid any chance of radiation exposure to people, or any pollution.The radioactivity of the waste are stored as to store high level waste for about 50 years before dispoalRadioactive waste can remain radioactive for few months, years or even hundreds of years and the level of radioactivity can vary.Radioactive waste is extremely toxic as it remain radioactive for so long, and can cause acute radiation sickness.

Nuclear power plants generate about 20% of U.S. electricity.The challenge of making nuclear power safer doesn’t end after the power has been generated. Nuclear fuel remains dangerously radioactive for thousands of years after it is no longer useful in a commercial reactor. The resulting waste disposal problem has become a major challenge for policymakers. Radioactive waste is being generated in the United states and throughout the world as a result of research, mining,electricity production,nuclear weapons production.Laws and regulations are made on a global scale to help ensure the safe handling of radioactive waste to protect human and environmental health.Nuclear power plants do not burn any fuel instead, they use uranium fuel consisting of solid ceramic pellets, to produce electricity through a process called fission.Every eighteen to twenty four months a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel which becomes radioactive waste.