Spent Nuclear Fuel - Disposal

Disposal

See also: List of nuclear waste treatment technologies

Nuclear reprocessing can separate spent fuel into various combinations of reprocessed uranium, plutonium, minor actinides, fission products, remnants of zirconium or steel cladding, activation products, and the reagents or solidifiers introduced in the reprocessing itself. In this case the volume that needs to be disposed of is greatly reduced.

Alternatively, the intact Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) can be disposed of as radioactive waste.

The United States has planned disposal in deep geological formations, such as the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, where it has to be shielded and packaged to prevent its migration to humans' immediate environment for thousands of years. However, on March 5, 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing that "the Yucca Mountain site no longer was viewed as an option for storing reactor waste."

Read more about this topic:  Spent Nuclear Fuel

Famous quotes containing the word disposal:

    “Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit.”
    —Guy Debord (b. 1931)

    “A mental disease has swept the planet: banalization.... Presented with the alternative of love or a garbage disposal unit, young people of all countries have chosen the garbage disposal unit.”
    —Ivan Chtcheglov (b. 1934)