Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage: Department of Energy

As with all generation of electricity, nuclear energy produces waste. In The United States, more than 70 million homes are powered by nuclear energy which generates 2,200 tons of spent fuel per year. Collectively, all spent fuel since the 1950s could fit on a single football field at a depth of less than 10 yards.

For comparison, here is what coal emits in order to power 70 million homes: 642 million tons of carbon dioxide, 275 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 183 million tons of nitrogen oxides, 6.1 million tons of particulate matter, and 15.29 tons of mercury.

Different Levels of Nuclear Waste: Visual Capitalist

Spent nuclear fuel refers to the used fuel that has gone through fission in a nuclear reactor. After the fuel has been irradiated in the reactor, it becomes radioactive is managed and stored. It is usually placed in a large and deep spent fuel pool of water at the reactor site. The water serves two purposes: Cooling the spent fuel (which continues to generate heat) and radiation shielding. Spent fuel is typically stored in these pools for 5-10 years.

After several years in the water pool, the fuel is to be transferred to dry cask storage. Spent fuel is sealed in large, robust, steel and concrete containers that provide radiation shielding and heat dissipation. Radioactivity of spent fuel decreases to 1/1000th of it’s original level after 40 years. These casks are stored at the reactor site or at centralized storage facilities. Dry cask storage is considered a safe, long term option for managing spent fuel.

More than 2,500 cask shipments of spent fuel have safely been transported across the United States without any radiological harm to the environment. In millions of miles traveled, there has been no instance of spent fuel materials harming the environment thanks to strict safety procedures.

Source: Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant

Spent nuclear fuel can be reprocessed to recover usable materials like uranium and plutonium, which can then be recycled to produce new nuclear fuel. Reprocessing helps reduce the volume of high-level waste but comes with technical, environmental, and security concerns. After reprocessing, the leftover waste is usually vitrified (turned into glass) for long-term storage.

The long term disposal solution for spent nuclear fuel is geological disposal, where it is placed deep underground in stable geological formations. Finland is currently the only country to have successfully built a deep geological repository for spent fuel, the Onkalo Repository, which is expected to store spent fuel for up to 100,000 years.

Onkalo Repository in Olkiloto, Finland

The future of nuclear energy storage will continue to evolve in a safe and responsible manner. Given nuclear’s high energy density and ability to produce large amounts of carbon free electricity, we are optimistic about it’s future. The key to growing the nuclear industry is ensuring the public is well informed about the benefits of the clean energy source and advocating for it’s development.

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