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nuclear waste

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
The radioactive and toxic by-products of the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries. Nuclear waste may have an active life of several thousand years. Reactor waste is of three types: high-level spent fuel, or the residue when nuclear fuel has been removed from a reactor and reprocessed; intermediate , which may be long-or short-lived; and low-level , but bulky, waste from reactors, which has only short-lived radioactivity. Disposal, by burial on land or at sea, has raised problems of safety, environmental pollution, and security. The issue of nuclear waste has become the central controversy threatening the future of generating electricity by nuclear energy. The dumping of nuclear waste at sea officially stopped in 1983, when a moratorium was agreed by the members of the London Dumping Convention (a United Nations body that controls disposal of wastes at sea). Covertly, the USSR continued dumping, and deposited thousands of tonnes of nuclear waste and numerous faulty reactors in…
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Nuclear fuel cycle based on uranium.
1. Nuclear Fission 2. Nuclear Fuel Cycle 3. Radionuclides in Nuclear Waste 4. Classification of Radioactive Wastes 5. Disposal of Low-Level Wastes 6. Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel 7. Disposal of High-Level Wastes…
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Full text Article radioactive waste

From The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
Solid, liquid, and gaseous waste products from nuclear reactors, uranium processing plants, hospitals, etc., that are radioactive. Because the radioactivity of some materials persists for thousands of years, their disposal must be undertaken with great care. High-level waste (spent nuclear fuel, …
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Full text Article radioactive waste

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
Radioactive materials that may be left after a commercial or laboratory process has been carried out. Some is “low-level” waste, such as objects that have touched the radioactive tracers used in certain medical tests. Other waste may be “high-level,” such as the material left in a nuclear reactor…
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The half‐life of a radioactive element is the...
Low‐level nuclear waste is buried at 15 principal sites in the United States. These wastes are buried, under a philosophy of ‘dilute and disperse’, in areas where the hydrological and geological conditions are believed to curtail the migration of radioactivity. Not all of these buried sites have, …
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Full text Article nuclear waste

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
The radioactive and toxic by-products of the nuclear energy and nuclear weapons industries. Nuclear waste may have an active life of several thousand years. Reactor waste is of three types: high-level spent fuel, or the residue when nuclear fuel has been removed from a reactor and reprocessed; …
| 438 words
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Full text Article Nuclear Waste: Disposal of

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
What's to be done with nuclear waste? Although it is over 50 years since scientists achieved controlled nuclear fission, the question of what to do about nuclear waste is as controversial as ever. The dangers Nuclear waste comes from nuclear power stations, nuclear weapons, uranium mines, and waste…
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Full text Article nuclear waste

From Environmental History and Global Change: A Dictionary of Environmental History
Disposal of nuclear waste is a major problem because of the very long periods over which it remains radioactive. In Britain the only designated site for the disposal of low-grade waste is Drigg near the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. In the USSR under Stalin, nuclear waste was mainly dumped…
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Radioactive waste consists of liquid, solid, or gaseous materials containing high, medium, or low levels of radioactivity. There are two alternative policies underlying technologies for proces- sing and storage of radioactive waste. If the level of radioactivity in the waste is low or medium, the…
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Full text Article Nuclear Waste

From The Visual Guides: Understanding Weather and The Environment Full text Article POLLUTION
Description Time Total Time The nuclear industry produces radioactive waste, which is extremely toxic. 00:02 - 00:07 00:00:58 This waste is stored in hermetically sealed shafts, but we do not know if this precaution is sufficient to prevent long-term radioactive leaks. 00:08 - 00:18 The nuclear…
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Full text Article nuclear waste

From Philip's Encyclopedia
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