How long spent fuel rods

What is spent nuclear fuel? Spent Fuel Pool. Fuel Rod Assembly Overview. Additional Resources. Deep Isolation Story It is time to consider alternative options to address the nuclear waste challenge by working alongside communities for mutually beneficial solutions. Our Story. Nuclear Waste: the Whole Story Explore more perspectives about nuclear waste.

Get the Whole Story. FAQS Deep Isolation answers frequently asked questions about our technology, our process, and safety. Deep Isolation Answers. And even if reprocessing or fast breeders could be made to work cheaply and efficiently—eliminating spent reactor rods as radioactive refuse—there would still be thousands of tons of nuclear waste in need of a permanent home. The other nuclear waste The U. Ranging from workers' coveralls to water filters, some of this stream of nuclear waste no longer has a place for its disposal either—particularly the highly radioactive materials rated as classes B and C, such as reactor vessel heads.

The national nuclear dump in Barnwell, S. A new dump in Texas, granted a license by the state this month, will only accept low-level leavings from that state and Vermont, alongside similarly restricted dumps in Utah and Washington State. This has also left users of nuclear products such as hospitals and universities scrambling to find a place to dispose of their radioactive residue. So now the waste from the majority of reactors on the east coast and Midwest typically sits alongside the spent nuclear fuel in dry casks on-site.

In terms of safety, it's the best that can be done at present. Somewhere where there were armed security officers with concrete buildings," Andersen says. It originally stated that the Monju fast-breeder reactor used molten salt coolant. Thanks to bhoglund for pointing out the error. David Biello is a contributing editor at Scientific American. Follow David Biello on Twitter. Already a subscriber?

Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Read more from this special report: The Future of Nuclear Power. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism. Knowledge awaits. See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Say what?

Commercial used nuclear fuel is a solid Used fuel refers to the uranium fuel that has been used in a commercial reactor. The U. Used fuel is stored at more than 70 sites in 34 U.

Used fuel is safely transported across the United States Over the last 55 years, more than 2, cask shipments of used fuel have been transported across the United States without any radiological releases to the environment or harm to the public. Used nuclear fuel can be recycled to make new fuel and byproducts. Nuclear Energy Basics.