Why do we need to store nuclear waste?
Radioactive wastes are stored so as to avoid any chance of radiation exposure to people, or any pollution. The radioactivity of the wastes decays with time, providing a strong incentive to store high-level waste for about 50 years before disposal.
How Long Does nuclear waste stay radioactive?
Strontium-90 and cesium-137 have half-lives of about 30 years (half the radioactivity will decay in 30 years). Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years. High-level wastes are hazardous because they produce fatal radiation doses during short periods of direct exposure.
When did the government start storing nuclear waste?
The waste storage issue languished and lacked direction until the Nuclear Waste Management Organization was mandated by the federal government in 2002 to find a site and build a permanent, underground storage facility for the waste. How dangerous is the spent fuel?
What is the Department of Energy doing about nuclear waste?
Today, the Department of Energy is taking a critical step toward the development of a consent-based approach to siting future nuclear waste management facilities as part of a strategy for the long-term storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
How much money is needed to store nuclear waste?
Storing nuclear waste a $24-billion problem. There are two million high-level radioactive fuel bundles sitting at temporary storage sites in Canada, as the Nuclear Waste Management Organization wrestles with the mandate of finding a community to host a central storage facility for the waste for perhaps tens of thousands of years.
Why do we need long-term solutions for nuclear waste?
Meeting long-term nuclear waste management needs is essential to ensuring that nuclear power continues to power the nation in a safe, sustainable, and responsible way. In addition to waste from generation of electricity, waste from defense activities requires safe storage and disposal.