One of the major problems with nuclear power, especially
fission reactors, is the disposal of the radioactive waste.
Nuclear waste is usually divided
into three categories high, intermediate and low level, depending on the amount of
radioactivity present.
Low level waste
In Britain low level waste (LLW)
such as gloves, cast off clothing, over shoes etc. is packed into 200 litre steel containers about
the size of a kitchen fridge - squashed to 0.2 of their original volume and then packed into 3
cubic metre boxes
Intermediate level waste
The intermediate level waste
(ILW) such as fuel containers is packed in 500 litre steel drums
In future ILW from
decommissioning will be stored in 12 cubic metre steel boxes - the spaces between items
packed with concrete
ILW is now stored, about 50 000 cubic metres
currently
High level waste
The most radioactive is the high level waste
(HLW), and the government has decided to store it for 50 years before it is disposed of. HLW is
the responsibility of UKAEA and BNFL and is mainly irradiated fuel taken from reactors. It is not
only very radioactive it also has a high initial temperature. Fuel has been reprocessed to take
out uranium and plutonium but it still leaves a very toxic waste behind. This is being converted
into glass blocks for storage. Typically 1000 times more radioactive than ILW, about 100 cubic
metres of HLW is produced every year.
In the United States wastes from the defence
programme are called military waste and were treated separately from civilian
wastes.