Purple Diary
[March 17 2011]
The truth on radioactive waste
Over 90% of the radioactivity produced from power plants is High-Level Waste and depending on its type, remains radioactively dangerous for millions of years. Nuclear waste is produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining and enrichment, to reactor operation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Quarantine solutions for the waste must essentially last forever and although nuclear transmutation can reduce long-term radioactivity, this has not yet been proven. Proposals on dealing with “Low-level” waste (90% of radioactive waste) include recycling, which would allow the waste to be disposed of as trash – increasing radiation exposures to everyone.
Source Greenpeace and Nuclear Information and Resource Service and a photograph of the Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility, Cherenkov Radiation, Hanford Site, U.S. Department of Energy. Photo Taryn Simon
