The Pros And Cons Of Nuclear Waste

Radioactive Waste One of the most talked about opposition toward nuclear fission is the radioactive waste it produces. A radioactive waste is what is left behind after using a reactor to make electricity. There are two levels of waste, low and high, but both are regulated by the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. High level waste is made up of fuel that’s been used directly in the reactor that is highly radioactive but can still be disposed. Low level waste is the contaminated items that have been exposed to radiation. The nuclear wastes are then stored in a safe and secure location with different types of methods such as wet storage, dry storage, and away from reactor storage. Wet storage is the main method of disposing the waste because it is the

Any country with a nuclear program has the prospective to make nuclear weapons. The fuel of a nuclear reactor at its core is uranium. Low enriched uranium is used in energy production while the highly enriched version is used to make weapons and is called weapons grade uranium. The atom bomb that landed in Hiroshima used 60kg of weapons grade uranium and since the advancements of warfare it now only requires 20-25kg to make a nuclear weapon. Plutonium which is a byproduct of the fission process can also be used for manufacturing weapons and only requires 2-10kg to develop weapons. The atom bomb that landed in Nagasaki contained plutonium fuel. Depleted uranium, which is the left over from the enrichment process, is used to make military grade armor piercing bullets. These DU penetrators have been used in wars throughout history the most recent being the Gulf wars. This is a disadvantage because the depleted uranium is toxic and has been scientifically proven cause birth defects, cancer, and death where it was used. All these effects were the cause of discovering nuclear fission and its