1. Nuclear Waste Disposal By: Tierra Simmons

2. Nuclear Waste Disposal Controversy Nuclear energy provides enough efficient sources of energy than all fossil fuels. Although the safety and risks of health concern the waste disposal this is an important problem. The amount of nuclear plants increase the concern that stakeholders have due to nuclear waste containing radioactive material like Uranium and Plutonium, which are left from nuclear fission.

3. Nuclear Waste Disposal Controversy (Continued) Failures in the Yucca Mountain in Nevada is an example that depict major risks of the use of nuclear energy. Successful implements of a stable method of nuclear waste management has been developed in European countries. The resources used helped with the examination of nuclear waste management in major stakeholders were used to gain understanding in this controversy. They discussed including the government, general public, and environmentalists. To contain the various types of deadly waste, methods of disposal were investigated. One was being the Near Surface Disposal and the other the Deep Geological Disposal. It’s crucial to know the development of nuclear waste to decrease the risk of events that can change history.

4. Nuclear Waste Management The federal government has not created a placed program to dispose of nuclear waste. Most of the used fuel is stored at reactor sites in steel- lined concrete pools containing water or airtight steel or concrete-and- steel containers. The storage is only temporary but a component of integrated used fuel management system. Other facets contain recycling, transportation, and geologic disposal. Nuclear fuel is used once or recycled for later use, disposal of high-level radioactive byproducts in a permanent geologic repository is necessary. An essential element disposal is underground disposal in specially designed facility.

5. Radioactive Waste Management There are many different types of radioactive wastes such as – Low-level Wastes: that are generally created in hospitals and industries, it reduces the volume and often are compacted or incinerated before disposal. – Intermediate-level Wastes: Requires shielding due to the more amount of radioactivity being contained. – High-level Wastes: Form by the “burning” of uranium fuel in nuclear reactors. Highly radioactive and hot. “Used nuclear fuel may be treated as a resource or simply as a waste.”

6. Radioactive Waste Disposal: An Environmental Perspective Radioactive wastes an come in the form of a gas, liquid, or solid which could play a role in the differences in levels of radioactivity. Designs for new disposal methods have evolved to meet the new environmental “Proper disposal is essential to ensure protection of the health and safety of the public and quality of the environment including air, soil, and water supplies.”

7. Eric Loewen The Chief Consulting Engineer at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) in Wilmington, North Carolina is Dr. Eric Loewen. Loewen created a solution that burns nuclear waste, doesn’t emit CO 2, and shuts itself down if an accident occurs. Eric Loewen created the sodium fast reactor that which burns nuclear waste and emits no CO2 into the air.

8. Works Cited http://www.nei.org/Issues-Policy/Nuclear-Waste- Management http://www.nei.org/Issues-Policy/Nuclear-Waste- Management http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel- Cycle/Nuclear-Wastes/Radioactive-Waste- Management/ http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel- Cycle/Nuclear-Wastes/Radioactive-Waste- Management/ http://www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/radwaste/ http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and- brightest-2009/nuclear-waste-disposal-1209-2 http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and- brightest-2009/nuclear-waste-disposal-1209-2 http://gehitachiprism.com/contact-us/us/ http://stas325nuclear.wordpress.com/