documentProperties> 14.00 documentProperties> documentSettings> documentSettings> Nuclear waste also known as radioactive waste refers to radioactive and extremely toxic by-products of nuclear fuel processing plants, and nuclear medicine and nuclear weapons industries. Nuclear wastes remain radioactive for thousands of years and have to be buried deep on land or at sea in thick concrete or metal (lead and stainless steel) containers.
The production of nuclear weapons has polluted vast amounts of soil and water at hundreds of nuclear weapons facilities all over the world. Many of the substances released, including plutonium, uranium, strontium, caesium, benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls, mercury and cyanide, are carcinogenic and/or mutagenic and remain hazardous for thousands, some for hundreds of thousands, of years.
In the US alone, more than US$ 44 billion has been spent on the production of nuclear weapons as of 1996. 'Clean up' is projected to cost more than US$300 billion through the year 2070, and even then the contaminated sites will require monitoring and stewardship into the far future. Plutonium takes around 250,000 years to become lead.
Everything on Earth is exposed to radiation. However, exposure to radiation at levels greater than natural background radiation can be hazardous. Exposure to certain high levels of radiation, such as that from high-level radioactive waste, can even cause death. Radiation exposure can also cause cancer, birth defects, and other abnormalities, depending on the time of exposure, amount of radiation, and the decay mechanism.
The burial of radioactive materials is presently being touted as the 'solution' to radioactive waste 'disposal'. The burial of these materials must not be confused with their safe containment and isolation from the environment. Currently there is no solution to the problem of radioactive waste, there are no technologies that can clean up radiation, which is why the entire nuclear project must be stopped.
Sources
http://www.pollutionissues.com/Pl-Re/Radioactive-Waste.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/peace/abolish-nuclear-weapons/the-damage/
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/nuclear-waste.html
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6 Comments
thanks for sharing
Posted 06-02-2018 21:47
good report
Posted 06-02-2018 21:46
Thanks Adora for highlighting the Nuclear weapons issue- this is the use of Nuclear power that the world certainly can do without...
Posted 29-05-2017 11:40
Thank you for the insight my mentors
Posted 26-05-2017 09:24
Adaora, thank you for your report. You have well introduced us to the basic information about nuclear waste. Nuclear weapons' effect on environment was interesting as well. Is there any issue with nuclear waste in your country. I would love to read about it.
Posted 25-05-2017 23:47
Hi Adaora! Thanks for sharing your report on nuclear waste.
I hundred percent agree with what you said, burial shouldn't be thought as a solution.
Hope better and safer solution for treating nuclear would come out in near future. Thanks for sharing again!
Posted 22-05-2017 19:11