Management and Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Waste
What kind of waste are spent fuel rods?
When fuel rods in a nuclear reactor are no longer usable, they are removed from the reactor
core and put into pools of water to cool. The rods are still highly radioactive and continue to
generate significant heat for decades. After about 5 years of cooling in pools, the spent fuel is
moved into dry cask storage.
This nuclear waste is extremely dangerous. Unshielded, it can give off a lethal dose of radiation
in seconds.
The time scale needed for the radiotoxicity of the spent fuel to drop to the level of natural
uranium is very long, approximately 200,000-300,000 years.
Spent fuel rods from commercial reactors are regulated under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act
(NWPA). This law requires that the waste be isolated from the public in a permanent repository
for 10,000 years.
Spent fuel is classified as a "high-level radioactive waste" and our nation's rules for
implementing the NWPA can be found in 40 CFR Part 191.
2View entire presentation