What will America do with its Nuclear Waste?

How is America going to dispose of their Nuclear Waste? This is the timeless four million dollar question it seems.

Since the residents of Nevada have eventually gotten their arms up in protest of the Yucca Mountain disposal site Americas future of its Nuclear waste seems rather uncertain.

I will start off by talking about Plutonium which mostly exists because of the nuclear arms race between the US and the former Soviet Union. There is apparently 500 metric tons of this stuff in the world right now-- but what should we do with it?

Commonly referred to as the Element From Hell this plutonium has become quite the issue for the UK, US, and the former USSR. You see plutonium is lethal, where uranium is not nearly as lethal as plutonium is-- plutonium is a death sentence for anyone who is around it unprotected. The UK, which has 100 metric tons of this material has been given the lead on deciding plutonium's future.

They have been engaged in MOX (mixed oxide nuclear fuel) which is actually a combination os uranium and plutonium both. But if you remember plutonium is certainly lethal, which makes handling of this MOX fuel cost prohibitive. By the way, MOX technology was pioneered by both the French and Japanese governments. The use of MOX is predicted to increase the production of electricity nearly exponentially. Even though there is a humongous MOX plant being built (as of 2009, I have not really kept up on the project, but I spoke with some of their representatives at a job fair at SIU spring 2009) in South Carolina. This is a money sink at best as the UK has already abandoned their plant. So I would think the notion of MOX is officially out now!

Another option for plutonium is to use it in a 'fast reactor'. But such reactors require the use of Lithium as the coolant. And if you know anything about Lithium you can see the troubles this type of reactor would bring. France and Japan have said fast reactors, but they have been plagued by the lithium in their plants. Although the US and Russia have had some successes with their attempts at a fast reactor.

All of this does not so much as solve the problems with plutonium, but delay it. So, it seems as though the best answer science can supply us with is to bury it. But I have a definite problem with the burial of plutonium-- what says it is not going to leech into the groundwater and kill use all?

This is the article which inspired my blog article, and provided me with what information I was unaware of.